kenh@cmf.nrl.navy.mil (Ken Hornstein) writes:
> I'm curious ... does anyone know what are some typical "maximum spinups"
> numbers?

These are jealously guarded numbers along with profit margins.  You
can look at the published specs at places like the following, but you
won't see them come right out and say what the numbers are.

  http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/diskdrdl/micro/datasheet.htm

From what I understand spin-up numbers also got quite a bit better as
folks got away from ground-up rust that was finger-painted onto
platters.  Current generation disks are all plated or sputtered.  Its
a much smoother coat that is much more resistant to scraping off.
(Thats why all the old 14" platters you see decorating cubicles are
brown and all the current smaller disk platters are shiny silvery.)

> I'm wondering if anyone has any hard data on this.  I hear a lot of
> conjecture, but nothing definitive.  I haven't experienced any problems
> yet on my laptop, but I fully realize this is only one datapoint.

Laptop disks are some of the toughest disks made.  They are always the
most current generation, since size matters so much.  Extrapolating
from a 6mm x 2.5" 6gig disk to some full-height 5-1/4" 4-Gig
dumpster-special (even if it is SCSI) is a very dangerous proposition.

-wolfgang
-- 
       Wolfgang Rupprecht <wolfgang+gnus@dailyplanet.wsrcc.com>
		    http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/
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