Users irked by Adaptec upgrade policy

One corporate user of the AAA 13X RAID cards said that it worked very well under Windows NT but when Microsoft released W2K, Adaptec said it wouldn't work with the OS and an upgrade to the AAA 13XU2 was required.

But the user complained, that the only difference between the two appeared to be Ultra2 SCSI support, and, in fact, the old product worked fine under the new OS.

Now users have been told that the the AAA-13xU2 will not be supported under Windows XP because of changes in the OS architecture.

But again reports on the Microsoft newsgroups seem to suggest that the kit again works just fine under the new Microsoft Eyecandy.

One user told the INQUIRER today: "Adaptec suggest I buy another Adpatec RAID card with XP support, but I'm not going to drop any more money on their cards, as my next OS upgrade is likely to cost thousands in hardware and man hours to rebuild disk arrays."

The 13XU2 cards are still available for sale both on Adaptec's own Web site, he said.

"It's not just the cost of the RAID card that's annoying, but the time, effort and hassle of moving data from one controller to another, just because Adaptec are too lazy to update their drivers (or in the case of XP, just produce another .inf file!)," he complained.

Another user said that a 131U2 single channel currently costs $499, while the triple channel 133U2 versions cost much more. Twenty months shelf life is not good enough he suggested, for high end RAID products.

His dinosaur Mylex DAC960 works fine under Windows XP, he added.

He said that large corporations typically do not scream and shout, but that if Adaptec had told consumers that the arrival of a new OS meant they'd have to dump their AHA SCSI adaptors and buy a new SCSI card, there would be an outcry.

Adaptec was not available for comment at press time. µ