🚀 go-pugleaf

	Didn't see the original survey - will add my experiences.
	We have bought for our lab Macs 6 hard drives over the years, 3
	DataFrames and 3 MicroTechs. The DataFrames have worked
	fine but when one (a 20)died after two years the dealer wanted
	approx $600 to fix it. I am given to understand there is
	an NEC drive that will fit and work in the DataFrame
	power supply. We are looking for one. The MicroTech Novas
	are perfect for public spaces - they are too big to carry off,
	run cool so being covered with paper won't hurt and they are
	guaranteed for 5 years. They are also the quietest box
	I have seen & used. We have 2 Apple drives as supplied with
	an SE(20) and a MacII(40) - neither has failed in 2 years of constant
	use. The SE drive is noisy but we didn't notice until we
	had a civilized fan put in the SE.  Apple only charged us $70
	to fix their own mistake! What a favor! 

	My personal system is a dual floppy SE. I had to horse
	a hard disk home on a regular basis for awhile so I bought a Liberty
	40meg drive for myself. It is very small, it is the fastest drive
	of all the above, and it's 'filelok' partition software is
	a nice feature. The Liberty people were just starting out when 
	I ordered my drive and they were very frank about problems
	they were having with the compact power supply setup and
	refused to send me a disk until they were happy with it. It
	is either a qume or quantum 40meg 3.5" drive and a program
	that take 6 seconds to load on the SE20 meg loads in 1.5 secs on
	the SE/Liberty. Fits easily in my briefcase and has yet to suffer
	from the trip to/from work. Louder than the MicroTechs - quiter
	than the DataFrames (Higher pitched, tho)
	
	Both the Liberty and the Microtek have a wheel to set the SCSI number
	on the outside. Our early DataFrames do not - don't know about 
	more recent ones.
	
	At the time I bought my disk(Oct'88) the MicroTech was the best price,
	including the build it youself setups I found,  the Liberty 40 was the
	same cost as a DataFrame30 (not XP).

	At this point I wouldn't consider anything other than MicroTech for
	drives I was responsible for at work. Liberty makes the best solution
	if you have to hump your drive around with you. It will fit in the
	inside pocket of a Mac carrier(not recommended) and easily fits in
	a briefcase or backpack(wrap it in something soft like a shirt)
	Any drive that travels should always be in a plastic static bag. 
	If I bought another drive for myself it probably would be a 'build
	it yourself' like the ones mentioned in the survey.

	In five years of managing computer systems, there hasn't been a hard
	drive that was totally reliable except for a Fujitsu Eagle. We have
	DEC, Maxtor, Micropolis, Data General and CDC drives of all flavors
	in that time and some drives last and some don't but except the Fujitsu
	Eagle, no brand or model stands out as particularly good or bad.
	
					
							hurf

-- 
     Hurf Sheldon			 Network: hurf@ionvax.tn.cornell.edu
     Lab of Plasma Studies		  Bitnet: hurf@CRNLION
     369 Upson Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853  ph:607 255 7267
     I sold my Elan, got a job in science; Now, no one takes me seriously.