pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann) (05/11/88)
In an earlier article discussing big disk drives, I mentioned that
1) Maxtor 1140 (140 MB MFM/RLL drives) are *really* identical to Maxtor 2190
(190 MB MFM/RLL) drives.
2) Rumor had it that the 170MB ESDI drive from Maxtor has everything it takes
to *really* be twice as big; a jumper would enable the extra heads.
I now have results to report on the rumor (#2): Too bad. The drive is NOT
bigger than advertised.
To repeat a clarification of #1 provided by somebody (don't remember who,
sorry!) in this group:
Maxtor 1140 drives really are the same as Maxtor 2190's. EXCEPT
for some VERY OLD samples, which do not work at greater than 918
cylinders (1140 has 918, 2190 has 1224). Any 1140 shipped within
the last few years should have no trouble acting as a 2190.
A hint on my investigation of 'disk manager'/'speedstor'/'vfeature deluxe'
big-disk managers:
1) Vfeature deluxe is NOT copy-protected, as mistakenly reported by someone.
You simply have to 'lock' it to your system before using it. If you
'lock' a copy of the original disk, you won't have any trouble. This
'lock' procedure seems to be common for programs that need to access
the disk controller at a very low level. I haven't tried re-locking to
a different machine; I'd consider inability to re-lock a bug. But
you can copy the original disk all you want for backup purposes.
2) Handling drives with >1024 cylinders on a PC is *very* tricky. So far,
the only working mechanisms we've found involve (1) Use of Adaptec
controller card, and normal (32MB) partition sizes; or (2) OMTI
controller card and SpeedStor software.
We're still yelling at Adaptec/Golden Bow/OnTrack/Storage Dimensions/
etc. to see who is willing to fix the world so that other reputedly-
working solutions will actually work. (For example, Storage Dimensions
advertises that SpeedStor will handle >1024 cylinders on Adaptec
controllers. It doesn't, at least at the current rev level.
I'll give a full review once we have good answers.
Pete
--
OOO __| ___ Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises
OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014
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___| \_____ Phone: 408/996-7746keithe@tekgvs.TEK.COM (Keith Ericson) (05/14/88)
In article <215@octopus.UUCP> pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann) writes: > >1) Vfeature deluxe is NOT copy-protected, as mistakenly reported by someone. > You simply have to 'lock' it to your system before using it. Tha might have been me. The "lock" must be undone before you can do any serious maintenence or changes to your disk. Upgrading/replacing the DOS can be a headache. For my money VFeature doesn't have enough going for it to be worth the hassle. I believe it has the capability of accessing the 1224 cylinders of a Maxtor 2190 if you have a WD-1003A-WA2 controller (note: this is the A version of the -1003-). And it doesn't require a mini-partition (a la' Disk Manager) to handle drives with a head count not in the ROM BIOS table. keith