This drive really is quite interesting. The HDA looks similar to a Trailblazer or Fireball TM, but there’s some interesting differences. There’s a hole that the ribbon goes through and the ribbon can be seen from the top of the drive. The bottom plate and the mounting rails are the same piece of metal compared to the Trailblazer/TM where the rails are screwed, and it’s a lot thinner than the bottom plate of these. The drive does not feel super light though.
My assumption is that this was a lower end offering alongside some of the fireballs. This drive spins at 4500 RPM.
This drive has a very interesting seek test, that starts like a classic Quantum but then has more stuff happening afterwards. Interestingly, the drive can start booting Windows at the same time as it does these extra parts, similarly to the Atlas II. (I haven’t demonstrated that in the video but I have heard that happening while I was testing the drive)
I got this drive from Rakuten, which isn’t a site I usually use, it was sold as tested working. When I got it, there was a big red X drawn on the drive which wasn’t a good sign. But it worked, SMART showed 2 reallocated sectors and a surface scan showed a single bad sector. After a write, not only the bad sector was no longer there, but the reallocated sectors went down to 1 as well (which is quite surprising). I cleaned the red X off and it looks decent. I like how it looks with that black paint, not something you would usually expect on a Quantum.
19 апр 2024
