c60a-1ed@e260-3f.berkeley.edu (Shang-Tse Chuang) (06/05/90)
I have a dilemma here, and need help... Someone, in a previous posting, said that it may be possible to use SCSI drives with MFM? I was wondering if this is possible... I have a 71MB full-height MFM drive installed on a 2FD/2HD controller card... I have a half-height free, in which I would like to install a removable media drive (25 ms, using 40MB cartridges), since I find 71 megs very cramped... The problem lies in that this removable media drive is a SCSI interface... Now, how would I go about using this, while still keeping my HD? If there is no inexpensive solution, is there a removable media (half-height) that I can use with my MFM controller??? I don't mind access time too much, as long as it's not too slow (< 40ms preferred) anything between 20-40 MB cartridges are fine... thanks for any/all help...
anderson@udder.macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) (06/05/90)
In article <1990Jun5.024609.15000@agate.berkeley.edu> c60a-1ed@e260-3f (Shang-Tse Chuang) writes: ]I have a dilemma here, and need help... ] ]Someone, in a previous posting, said that it may be possible to use SCSI ]drives with MFM? I was wondering if this is possible... ] ]I have a 71MB full-height MFM drive installed on a 2FD/2HD controller ]card... I have a half-height free, in which I would like to install a ]removable media drive (25 ms, using 40MB cartridges), since I find 71 megs ]very cramped... The problem lies in that this removable media drive is ]a SCSI interface... Now, how would I go about using this, while still ]keeping my HD? If there is no inexpensive solution, is there a removable ]media (half-height) that I can use with my MFM controller??? I don't mind ]access time too much, as long as it's not too slow (< 40ms preferred) ]anything between 20-40 MB cartridges are fine... ] ]thanks for any/all help... You can certainly get a SCSI drive controller that will coexist with your current MFM controller with no problems (e.g., WD 7000FASST), but it's not cheap; if I recall, mine was $479. But you can hang up to 7 SCSI devices on it. Of course, you also get speed if you locate a fast drive at an agreeable price. -- ==Jess Anderson===Academic Computing Center=====Univ. Wisconsin-Madison===== | Work: Rm. 2160, 1210 West Dayton St., Madison WI 53706, Ph. 608/263-6988 | | Home: 2838 Stevens St., 53705, 608/238-4833 Bitnet: anderson@wiscmacc | ==Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu====UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson==
wargopl@image.soe.clarkson.edu (Peter L. Wargo) (06/05/90)
From article <1990Jun5.024609.15000@agate.berkeley.edu>, by c60a-1ed@e260-3f.berkeley.edu (Shang-Tse Chuang): > I have a dilemma here, and need help... > > Someone, in a previous posting, said that it may be possible to use SCSI > drives with MFM? I was wondering if this is possible... > > I have a 71MB full-height MFM drive installed on a 2FD/2HD controller > card... I have a half-height free, in which I would like to install a One solution may be to use an Adaptec 4000 SCSI to ST506 board. If you can figger out the connections & driver software, you should be able to hook your MFM drive to the SCSI controller. Is your drive a Micropolis? (If so, that was a common setup in Sun II minicomputers - Adaptec 4000 & a Micropolis 1325/1335...) Pete -- Peter L. Wargo - wargopl@sun.soe.clarkson.edu, amoung others... "I don't believe it - I just spent 4 years at an expensive university- and I end up as a top-40 DJ..."
c60a-1ed@e260-3f.berkeley.edu (Shang-Tse Chuang) (06/05/90)
This is in reply to a previous reply to my SCSI & MFM dilemma (sorry, but I'm relatively new to the net posting and havent had time or patience to figure out how to cut and paste clips of other people's posting (i.e. "In msg ... so-and-so wrote... etc") perhaps if someone was to email me some helpful instructions...) but I digress... Yes, I DO own a Micropolis 1335 HD (71mb MFM), and I would very much like to get it interfaced to a SCSI... but will that meaning losing performance in the drive's part??? can you give some more details on how I go about this process??? thanks
pnl@hpfinote.HP.COM (Peter Lim) (06/08/90)
> I have a dilemma here, and need help... > > Someone, in a previous posting, said that it may be possible to use SCSI > drives with MFM? I was wondering if this is possible... > > I have a 71MB full-height MFM drive installed on a 2FD/2HD controller > card... I have a half-height free, in which I would like to install a > removable media drive (25 ms, using 40MB cartridges), since I find 71 megs > very cramped... The problem lies in that this removable media drive is > a SCSI interface... Now, how would I go about using this, while still > keeping my HD? If there is no inexpensive solution, is there a removable > media (half-height) that I can use with my MFM controller??? I don't mind > access time too much, as long as it's not too slow (< 40ms preferred) > anything between 20-40 MB cartridges are fine... > > thanks for any/all help... > ---------- ************************************************************************ * * * YES and NO ! YES and NO ! YES and NO ! YES and NO ! * * * ************************************************************************ Okay, this is a personal experience HOT from the press. Just got all the mess sought out yesterday midnight. The premise is: About a month ago, I was under the impression that one can have both ESDI and SCSI controllers in an AT system and expect it to work perfectly. I went ahead and bought a SyQuest SQ-555 44 MB removable drive (which sounds like the one you're considering). The drive came with a cheap Seagate ST-01 SCSI host adapter (no floppy controller and looks really cheap). I plugged the combination into my system which has a DTC-6280 ESDI controller in the system. Sure enough it didn't work ! The system would power up and rattle the ESDI drive for a while before declaring, "Missing Operating System". After changing through all the configurations, I gave up. I returned the controller for an upgrade to an ALWAYS IN-2000 controller which comes with floppy controller. Meanwhile, I went over to my friend's place. He has a 386 machine with an Adaptec ESDI and an Adaptec SCSI (AHA-1542A) installed. He has both ESDI and SCSI drives installed and they worked together fine. The ESDI is the primary controller with the SCSI being the secondary. I plugged my SyQuest drive onto his SCSI cable and it works fine with the ESDI drive still running ! I finally received my upgrade SCSI board yesterday. The ALWAYS IN-2000 controller costs me $199 (they gave me a refund of $79 for the ST-01). I of course eagerly plugged the card in after changing the BIOS address to avoid that of my ESDI card. On power on, I got the same old error message I had with the Seagate ST-01 controller, "Missing Operating System" ! I changed the BIOS address further and I/O ports and interrupt but things either didn't change or got worse ! I was all ready to give up and start cursing (thinking of changing ESDI controller ???). Then I decided to try out the floppy drive controller on the new board. I basically made my ESDI board secondary, disabled the floopy controller section, restored the IN-2000 board to its default configuration with floppy controller enabled. Guess what ?! This configuration actually worked ! The SyQuest drive is up and running as drives D: and I: (the ESDI occupied C:, E:, F:, G: and H:) ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The moral is: "YES ! There is definitely a chance of getting ESDI (or MFM for that matter) and SCSI to live happily in a system, and ...... BEWARE ! It might not be very straight forward, so ...... MAKE SURE that both your SCSI and ESDI/MFM adapters are extremely configurable to have a better chance." AVOID the Seagate ST-01 ??????? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The SyQuest drive is delivering about 590 KByte/sec with average seek time of about 29 ms (according to CORETEST). So, I'm happy with the system. Can't say the same few weeks ago ..... Have fun ...... Regards, ## Life is fast enough as it is ........ Peter Lim. ## .... DON'T PUSH IT !! >>>-------, ########################################### : E-mail: plim@hpsgwg.HP.COM Snail-mail: Hewlett Packard Singapore, : Tel: (065)-279-2289 (ICDS, ICS) | Telnet: 520-2289 1150 Depot Road, __\@/__ ... also at: pnl@hpfipnl.HP.COM Singapore 0410. SPLAT !
neese@adaptex.UUCP (06/10/90)
>/* ---------- "SCSI & MFM ??? HELP...!" ---------- */ >I have a dilemma here, and need help... > >Someone, in a previous posting, said that it may be possible to use SCSI >drives with MFM? I was wondering if this is possible... > >I have a 71MB full-height MFM drive installed on a 2FD/2HD controller >card... I have a half-height free, in which I would like to install a >removable media drive (25 ms, using 40MB cartridges), since I find 71 megs >very cramped... The problem lies in that this removable media drive is >a SCSI interface... Now, how would I go about using this, while still >keeping my HD? If there is no inexpensive solution, is there a removable >media (half-height) that I can use with my MFM controller??? I don't mind >access time too much, as long as it's not too slow (< 40ms preferred) >anything between 20-40 MB cartridges are fine... Okay, here is a definative answer,.... The AHA-154x adapter family has been designed so that it would co-exist with another standard hard disk controller in the system. The 154x adapter becomes the slave controller and allows the standard hard disk controller to be the boot device. No magic involved. It just works that way. Roy Neese Adaptec Senior SCSI Applications Engineer UUCP @ uunet!swbatl!texbell! {cpe,merch,nominil}!adaptex!neese uunet!mlite!adaptex!neese
kevinc@cs.AthabascaU.CA (Kevin Crocker) (06/11/90)
In article <1990Jun5.024609.15000@agate.berkeley.edu> c60a-1ed@e260-3f (Shang-Tse Chuang) writes: >I have a dilemma here, and need help... > >Someone, in a previous posting, said that it may be possible to use SCSI >drives with MFM? I was wondering if this is possible... > I have exactly the opposite problem. My new 386 came with a SCSI hard drive (Maxtor LXT-200S) and controller. I have an old Seagate 4053 (40Mb) MFM drive that I would like to use as a test drive (you know, to test BBS and downloaded software for viruses and the like) and was wondering if there is any way to install this Seagatet in the new machine? All help would be greatly appreciated. BTW, the mnufactureer says no, can't be done. Thanks all! Kevin -- Kevin "auric" Crocker Athabasca University UUCP: ...!{alberta,ncc,attvcr}!atha!kevinc Inet: kevinc@cs.AthabascaU.CA
poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) (06/13/90)
In article <31300002@adaptex> neese@adaptex.UUCP writes: > >>/* ---------- "SCSI & MFM ??? HELP...!" ---------- */ >>I have a dilemma here, and need help... >> >>Someone, in a previous posting, said that it may be possible to use SCSI >>drives with MFM? I was wondering if this is possible... >> [ stuff deleted] > >Okay, here is a definative answer,.... The AHA-154x adapter family has been >designed so that it would co-exist with another standard hard disk controller >in the system. The 154x adapter becomes the slave controller and allows the >standard hard disk controller to be the boot device. No magic involved. It >just works that way. > > Roy Neese > Adaptec Senior SCSI Applications Engineer > UUCP @ uunet!swbatl!texbell! > {cpe,merch,nominil}!adaptex!neese > uunet!mlite!adaptex!neese I just installed an adaptec 1542b SCSI controller. I haven't tried it with my exisiting MFM controller, but alone so far, the thing is REALLY nice. It is FAST. I get >700Kbytes/sec out of it. (CDC Wren III disk). A couple of programs for measuring disk performance (coretest) don't work completely right. (ie it can measure access time, but not transfer rate, and hdtest can measure transfer rates, but not mess with the interleave, which probably makes sense), but this can probably be expected. Russ Poffenberger DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen 1601 Technology Drive CIS: 72401,276 San Jose, Ca. 95110 (408)437-5254