From: Robert Tweed <robert_at_killingmoon.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 11:02:59 +0100

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stuart Tedford" <stuart.tedford_at_piresearch.co.uk>

> 1 I read somewhere that FAT32 has a limit of 30GB. If so, does this mean
> that I have to partition the drive?

Nope, it's 2TB (terrabytes).

> 3 By some strange twist of fate, I have the choice of either a Toshiba or
> IBM travelstar HDD (both current models) - which one would be better and
> why?

It's hard to say without the model numbers, but probably the Toshiba. IBM
had a lot of problems with recent drives, just prior to going out of the HDD
business altogether. Older IBM drives are generally the best you can get,
and are far more reliable than almost every other make. Newer ones though
are generally dodgy, with some models having up to 50% failure rate (instead
of about 5%).

That said, do try to check the model number of both drives on the
manufacturer's websites. If either of them is a retail model and the other
is an OEM then go for whichever is the retail one over the OEM. IBM's retail
drives are generally significantly better than their OEM ones, plus they
have a 3 year manufacturer's warranty instead of 1 (regardless of the 1 year
warranty you would normally get from a shop, which assuming these drives are
second-hand, you would not get). Not sure about Tosh, but I'd imagine their
OEM/retail warranty arrangements are mush the same.

As far as usefulness in the Archos goes, seek-time and rotation speed aren't
going to be that important, but it might be worth comparing the tech specs
for heat dissipation and power consumption. The lower the heat dissipation
the better (less chance of reliability problems with prolonged use), and the
lower the power consumption the better (better battery life).

In all honesty, the warranty is probably the overriding priority in all of
this, because drive performance really isn't much of an issue, and it's hard
to predict the future reliability of a single drive. It's not unlike russian
roulette. If all else is equal, go for whichever looks least likely to break
 down, given the information I have mentioned.

- Robert
Received on 2002-07-24