stevewa@upvax.UUCP (Steve Ward) (09/20/88)
I've seen notes from time to time suggesting that the media on the Miniscribe 3650 is good enough to use as an RLL drive. Well, I have one of same, and am considering getting an RLL controller if it's reasonably reliable when using this drive. So I'd like to hear from anyone who's tried using the 3650 with RLL encoding...I'm interested in reliability, how much storage you ended up with, and any difference in speed. I'd also like reccomendations on controllers...Ideally I'd like to get one with the floppy controller on the same board (like WD's), since otherwise I'd have to buy a seperate floppy controller. Oh, by the way, it's running on my 10MHz AT, so I'll need a 16-bit controller. Thanks in advance | Steve Ward Jr. | | | University of Portland (Just a lowly student!) | stevewa@upvax.UUCP | | Portland, Oregon | !tektronix!upvax!stevewa |
malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) (09/20/88)
In article <461@upvax.UUCP> stevewa@upvax.UUCP (Steve Ward) writes: |I've seen notes from time to time suggesting that the media on the |Miniscribe 3650 is good enough to use as an RLL drive. | |Well, I have one of same, and am considering getting an RLL controller |if it's reasonably reliable when using this drive. | |So I'd like to hear from anyone who's tried using the 3650 with RLL |encoding...I'm interested in reliability, how much storage you ended |up with, and any difference in speed. | |I'd also like reccomendations on controllers...Ideally I'd like to |get one with the floppy controller on the same board (like WD's), |since otherwise I'd have to buy a seperate floppy controller. I've been using my 3650 with a PerStor PS180 ARLL controller for about three months now, and haven't had any problems with it. I installed the PS180 right after the July 4 weekend (when I bought the controller, it had the wrong ROM for my system, and I figured that since I would be going out to Phoenix for WesterCon over the July 4 weekend, I might as well drop over to PerStor in Scottsdale and get the ROM swapped, rather than wait for shipping it each way). There was no problem formatting it using PerStor's format utility, and (modulo the two drive defects) gave me a formatted capacity of 38 megabytes, which I've partitioned into two 19 Mb drives. The PerStor controllers are advertised as being able to be used with _any_ hard disk, whether it's rated for MFM or RLL, and not quite doubles the capacity of the hard disk (that's the MFM capacity -- an ST238 running on a PerStor controller will give 38 Mb, not 57Mb). In fact, all of the performance information on the paper slipcover around the box are for the PS180 controller with a 3650 drive. The PS180 controller is an 8-bit card; as of 7/2/88, PerStor did not make a 16-bit controller card, although the programmer I talked to said that one was under development. The throughput using the ARLL controller was about 10-15% better than my old MFM controller. One caution about the PerStor controllers. The ROM release as of 7/2/88 requires that the disk be low-level formatted with PerStor's format utility. The ROM has a weird translation table for interleave values, so that calling the 'format track' BIOS routine will not get you the interleave value you expect. This means that any disk utility that does a dynamic re-interleave of your hard disk won't work the way it thinks it does. There is a newer version of the ROM that might be available now that uses a more intelligent interleave translation to enable the PS180 to recognize when a single track is being reformatted, and output the interleave the way the format request is asking for it, but I don't think that this is currently installed in the boards that are shipping. The PS180 controller lists for around $400, but with some shopping around, you should be able to find a fairly deep discount -- I bought mine for $225. A good deal, all told -- for less than another 20Mb drive would cost me, I doubled my disk capacity, and get 2-for-1 on any other drive I buy. I recommend the PerStor controllers highly. Sean Malloy Navy Personnel Research & Development Center San Diego, CA 92152-6800 malloy@nprdc.arpa
16012_3045@uwovax.uwo.ca (Paul Gomme) (09/23/88)
In article <903@skinner.nprdc.arpa>, malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) writes: > In article <461@upvax.UUCP> stevewa@upvax.UUCP (Steve Ward) writes: > |I've seen notes from time to time suggesting that the media on the > |Miniscribe 3650 is good enough to use as an RLL drive. < stuff deleted > > There was no problem formatting it using PerStor's format utility, and > (modulo the two drive defects) gave me a formatted capacity of 38 > megabytes, which I've partitioned into two 19 Mb drives. < more deleted > Wait a second! I have a Miniscribe 3650, and it formats to 40 meg _without_ any sort of RLL controller. As a matter of fact, I have a small C: drive (less than a meg), and two 20 meg partitions. Why does the PerStor RLL controller give almost the same as my drive (without RLL)? -------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Gomme gomme@uwovax.bitnet
malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) (09/27/88)
In article <685@uwovax.uwo.ca> 16012_3045@uwovax.uwo.ca (Paul Gomme) writes: >Wait a second! I have a Miniscribe 3650, and it formats to 40 meg _without_ >any sort of RLL controller. As a matter of fact, I have a small C: drive >(less than a meg), and two 20 meg partitions. Why does the PerStor RLL >controller give almost the same as my drive (without RLL)? My mistake -- I spaced on the model number of my Miniscribe. It is not a 3650, but the 20Mb half height (3250? Writing these at work, I don't have access to my HD information, and don't recall the number off the top of my head). The tech information on the box is for the 20Mb Miniscribe. However, the installation instructions for the PerStor controller have the switch settings for the 3650 listed, so it is compatible, and should get ~78Mb out of the 3650. My apologies for any confusion. Sean Malloy Navy Personnel Research & Development Center San Diego, CA 92152-6800 malloy@nprdc.arpa