[comp.sys.dec] Microvax RD54 disks

rainer@hibachi.colorado.edu (Rainer Malzbender) (02/05/90)

We are about to upgrade our two RD53's on our aging Microvax by adding an
RD54. Midwest Micro sells a Maxtor clone for $1199. Question: what kind of
disk is the RD54 really ? Our RD53's seem to be Micropolis 1325's; is the
RD54 something like a Micropolis 1355 ? We want to upgrade as cheaply as
possible. I know there would be a formatting step involved with third-party
drives, but the local computer people can do that for us. General question:
is the interface used on RD53/54's standard ESDI ? If so, what kind of ESDI
disks can I throw on there that the controller and VMS will support ?
Thanks for the help, please email reponses rather than post.

Rainer M. Malzbender        rainer@hibachi.colorado.edu        (303)492-6829
Dept. of Physics            malzbender@opus.vaxf.colorado.edu
U. of Colorado, Boulder     No damn Maxwell's equations T-shirts, please.

rainer@hibachi.colorado.edu (Rainer Malzbender) (02/05/90)

We are about to upgrade our two RD53's on our aging Microvax by adding an
RD54. Midwest Micro sells a Maxtor clone for $1199. Question: what kind of
disk is the RD54 really ? Our RD53's seem to be Micropolis 1325's; is the
RD54 something like a Micropolis 1355 ? We want to upgrade as cheaply as
possible. I know there would be a formatting step involved with third-party
drives, but the local computer people can do that for us. General question:
is the interface used on RD53/54's standard ESDI ? If so, what kind of ESDI
disks can I throw on there that the controller and VMS will support ?
Thanks for the help, please email reponses rather than post.

Rainer M. Malzbender        rainer@hibachi.colorado.edu        (303)492-6829
Dept. of Physics            malzbender@opus.vaxf.colorado.edu
U. of Colorado, Boulder     No damn Maxwell's equations T-shirts, please.
Rainer M. Malzbender        rainer@hibachi.colorado.edu        (303)492-6829
Dept. of Physics            malzbender@opus.vaxf.colorado.edu
U. of Colorado, Boulder     No damn Maxwell's equations T-shirts, please.

Frank.Mallory@f123.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Frank Mallory) (02/08/90)

 RM> We are about to upgrade our two RD53's on our aging Microvax by adding 
 RM> an
 RM> RD54. Midwest Micro sells a Maxtor clone for $1199. Question: what kind 
 RM> of
 RM> disk is the RD54 really ? Our RD53's seem to be Micropolis 1325's; is 
 RM> the
 RM> RD54 something like a Micropolis 1355 ? We want to upgrade as cheaply 

The RD53 is indeed a specially-selected Micropolis 1325; the Rainbow that this  
BBS is running on uses one, with MFM encoding via ST412 interface.

The Micropolis 1355 has an ESDI interface; I am not sure if it is the basis of  
the RD54.

The bottom line is that you will need an RQDX3 controller to handle the RD54.


frank.mallory@blkcat.fidonet.org
 



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