eab@cbrma.att.com (E.A.Beer) (06/30/87)
Is anyone using this drive on their PC? Any problems? In talking to the sales rep at Hamilton Avnet (800-521-3387), this disk can be used with an AT compatible or XT compatible. I would like to build a digital audio recorder/editor/processor and use 30 MB to store the audio while still having 10 Meg for programs. This is the only 40 Meg disk I've seen available for the straight PC (as opposed to the AT compatible for which much larger ones are available), and the price of $471.50 with controller doesn't seem too bad. Eugene Beer ---inhp4!cbatt!cbrma!eab 614-860-5668
jr@amanue.UUCP (Jim Rosenberg) (07/02/87)
In article <5850@cbrma.att.com>, eab@cbrma.att.com (E.A.Beer) writes: > Is anyone using this drive on their PC? Any problems? I'm using a Miniscribe 6085 with a 6300 with no problems at all. I'm not running DOS on in, though, but I don't see why you'd have any problem. The The usual hangup with hard disks on the 6300 is more the controller than the drive. The 1.4 BIOS chip will supposedly now handle a WD controller. I've used nothing but DTC in my 6300 & it's always run like a champ. I dunno the head/cylinder layout for the 3650, but if you see it in the following table you should be fine: Standard Drive Types for the BXD07 ROM on the DTC 5150 CX Capaci-| # of | # of | Write ty (MB)| heads | cyl. | Precomp cylinder -------|-------|-------|---------------- 20 4 612 32 5 733 20 4 612 128 10 4 306 43 5 987 60 7 987 20 8 306 42 5 977 42 6 820 10 2 612 62 7 1024 71 8 1024 80 9 1024 33 6 640 There is a position marked "Reserved for non-standard drives" with an asterisk to contact DTC for information. I really don't know anything about this. I'm not sure about the 5150 CX, but I'm assuming it's like an earlier BX I had. The switch settings are nothing but a "dumb" set of bits that the controller snarfs by doing an IN to a specific port. These settings are used as an index to a drive table in the controller ROM. The drive table is read into RAM, and under DOS there is a vector to it in low memory. I worked this out once but don't remember the details -- and the location may be DOS version- dependent anyway. In theory, it should be possible to run a non-standard drive by setting the switches for the closest match with the correct number of heads. Then in AUTOEXEC.BAT run a little program which diddles the drive table in RAM to its correct value. As long as all programs DOS needs to boot are within the number of cylinders for the standard drive type, I *think* this should work. The Miniscribe 6085 wants write precomp at 512. I was worried about this when I bought the drive, but everyone, including a techie at Miniscribe said I'd have no problem by not using write precomp. So far I haven't. Good luck! -- Jim Rosenberg CIS: 71515,124 decvax!idis! \ WELL: jer allegra! ---- pitt!amanue!jr BIX: jrosenberg seismo!cmcl2!cadre! /