jcbst3@cisunx.UUCP (James C. Benz) (04/11/89)
I am considering adding some hard drives to our 3B2 system here (more correctly, replacing the internal 32MB drives with bigger ones) and I'm having some trouble getting the information I need to make a decision. Two Maxtor drives (XT2190 and XT1140) have been recommended to me, but the prices for these fall a little out of our budget. One of the vendors I talked to suggested that I try one of their Microscience drives. These are: HH1050 53MB unformatted rll recording $500 HH1060 80MB unformatted rll recording $468 HH1075 75MB unformatted mfm recording $667 HH1095 112MB unformatted rll recording $800 My questions are: 1) has anyone out there used one of these drives with a 3B2 and how hard is it to do? 2) what does rll,mfm mean? Does it matter? 3) are there any other hard drives we might want to look at for under $1K? Natch, I am more interested in the 112MB than the 53MB - the more the better. The University however has only 'given' us $2K to upgrade 3 machines. I understand that formatting a big drive on a 3B2 is not as easy as using the sysadm menu, but someone out there was kind enough to forward some step by step instructions. Any information at all about using 3rd party drives with a 3B2 would be appreciated. -- Jim Benz jcbst3@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu If a modem University of Pittsburgh answers, UCIR (412) 648-5930 hang up!
pcg@aber-cs.UUCP (Piercarlo Grandi) (04/16/89)
In article <17482@cisunx.UUCP> jcbst3@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (James C. Benz) writes:
I am considering adding some hard drives to our 3B2 system here (more correctly,
replacing the internal 32MB drives with bigger ones) and I'm having some
trouble getting the information I need to make a decision.
HH1050 53MB unformatted rll recording $500
HH1060 80MB unformatted rll recording $468
HH1075 75MB unformatted mfm recording $667
HH1095 112MB unformatted rll recording $800
1) has anyone out there used one of these drives with a 3B2 and how hard is
it to do?
I haven't, but they are standard ST412/ST506, and I would be very surprised
to learn they do not work. Note that HH1075 is probably just HH1050, only
certified for RLL. Also, note the unformatted -- formatted it will tipically
be 25% less, i.e. 40MB, 60MB, 60MB, 70MB.
2) what does rll,mfm mean? Does it matter?
MFM is a recording encoding that is most common with ST412/ST506 interfaces;
RLL is another one that packs more bits per tracks than MFM, but requires
tighter tolerances on the disc unit. If you have a controller that only
supports MFM encoding, you do not need any disc certified for RLL.
3) are there any other hard drives we might want to look at for under $1K?
I am looking at the same class of drives, for my AT clone. I will buy either
the Miniscribe 6085 (28 ms., 71 MB formatted, full height) that you can find
for about $600-650 from various mail orders, the Miniscribe 3085 (22 ms.,
71MB formatted, half height) that comes for around $700-750, the Micropolis
1325 (28 ms., 72MB formatted, full height) for about $600-650, and for
a similar price also the Seagate ST4096 (28 ms., 80MB formatted, full height).
Among these my favourite is the Miniscribe 3085 (half height and 22 ms is
worth the price difference to me, and as far as I know it is the ONLY half
height disk of that capacity with an ST406 interface), while I don't trust
the Seagate ST4096, as apparently the intense seeking of a multiuser UNIX
system is not well tolerated by it.
Unfortunately I have heard that Miniscribe is having serious problems. Too
bad, they manufacture a range of very good discs. I may buy a Micropolis
instead.
--
Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.ukpjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg) (04/18/89)
Is there a 3B2 that has an RLL controller? I thought that only MFM was supported.
How can I determine if my 3B2/400 has an ST-506 or an ESDI HD controller
in it?
Thanks,
Pete
--
Pete Holsberg UUCP: {...!rutgers!}princeton!mccc!pjh
Mercer College CompuServe: 70240,334
1200 Old Trenton Road GEnie: PJHOLSBERG
Trenton, NJ 08690 Voice: 1-609-586-4800rjd@occrsh.ATT.COM (Randy_Davis) (04/20/89)
In article <671@mccc.UUCP> pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg) writes: |How can I determine if my 3B2/400 has an ST-506 or an ESDI HD controller |in it? All stock AT&T 3B2 model 310s and 400s have ST506 internal drives, and all stock model 500, 600, and 700s (and 1000-60, 70, and 80) have ESDI OR direct SCSI internal hard drives. So, Pete, unless you have done some serious modifiying (the firmware expects to see an ST506 off the system board controller for boot up), you have an ST506 drive or drives internally in your machine. Randy Davis UUCP: ...(att!)ocrjd!randy ...(att!)occrsh!rjd