lgreen@pnet01.cts.com (Lawrence Greenwald) (02/29/88)
If you're going to install a hard disk on your A2000, make sure you know the
specs of the drive. The most important two are:
1) half-height drive (assuming you're going to put it into the 5 1/4
drive slot.
2) The drive uses the MFM coding (the A2090 controller DOES NOT support
the RLL format).
I picked up a Seagate ST-251 drive (40 meg, 40 ms) for $379+tax at a recent
computer store's warehouse sale here in San Diego (got lucky...only 2 left and
the other one had a whole slew of bad sectors).
Also check the inside of your box, You need to add 4 screws to hold it on
place. (This is an ARGH!! to myself...I didn't have the screws and all the
hardware stores were closed (Sunday)).
The screws needed are 6-32 x 1/4 (or 5/16) machine screws. Oh well....
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>>>----> .... I disclaim anything to do with Dr.Dobbs.farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) (03/03/88)
lgreen@pnet01.cts.com (Lawrence Greenwald) writes: >If you're going to install a hard disk on your A2000, make sure you know the >specs of the drive. The most important two are: > > 1) half-height drive > 2) The drive uses the MFM coding (the A2090 controller DOES NOT support > the RLL format). This has nothing at all to do with the drive. MFM or RLL is simply the method used by the *controller* to encode data that is sent to the drive. The only difference in the drives is that RLL-compatible drives tend to be a bit more expensive than their non-compatible brethren, as RLL demands slightly tighter tolerances than does MFM. For example, the Seagate 225 drives are something like $25 cheaper than the Seagate 238 drives, and the only substantive difference between the two is that the 238 is RLL certified. So, if you can find an RLL-compatible drive at a real good price, you shouldn't hesitate to go for it; at least, not because it's RLL. -- Michael J. Farren | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just {ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}! | dogmatize it! Reflect on it and re-evaluate unisoft!gethen!farren | it. You may want to change your mind someday." gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame
shimoda@rmi.UUCP (Markus Schmidt) (03/07/88)
In article <719@gethen.UUCP> farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) writes: : lgreen@pnet01.cts.com (Lawrence Greenwald) writes: : slightly tighter tolerances than does MFM. For example, the Seagate 225 : drives are something like $25 cheaper than the Seagate 238 drives, and the : only substantive difference between the two is that the 238 is RLL certified. Hmm. There is another unimportant difference between stf225 and 238 As far as I know the 225 is a 20MB and the 238 is a 30MB drive. C u Markus (shimoda@rmi.uucp)
farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) (03/14/88)
In article <906@rmi.UUCP> shimoda@rmi.UUCP (Markus Schmidt) writes: >In article <719@gethen.UUCP> farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) writes: >: the only substantive difference between the two [Segate 225 and 238] >:is that the 238 is RLL certified. > >Hmm. There is another unimportant difference between stf225 and 238 >As far as I know the 225 is a 20MB and the 238 is a 30MB drive. You are not correct. If you put a 238 on a 'standard' MFM controller, you have a 20M drive. The 238 is a 30M drive if, and ONLY if, you are using it with an RLL controller. -- Michael J. Farren | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just {ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}! | dogmatize it! Reflect on it and re-evaluate unisoft!gethen!farren | it. You may want to change your mind someday." gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame