bchs1b@jetson.uh.edu (10/02/90)
I have a Zenith 386-16 with drive type 39 (CDC #94155-86, an 80 Mb ST506 type drive, which I assume is MFM. Does any one know if I can replace the controller with an RLL controller and would that give me more disk space and faster access. This certainly works with a number of drives but I do not know about this specific one. Any comments? Mike Benedik Biochemical Sciences University of Houston Benedik@UH.EDU
dibb@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Jim Dibb) (10/04/90)
In article <7071.27076d96@jetson.uh.edu> bchs1b@jetson.uh.edu writes: >Path: clarkson!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!jetson.uh.edu!bchs1b >From: bchs1b@jetson.uh.edu >Newsgroups: comp.sys.zenith >Date: 1 Oct 90 16:23:48 CDT >Organization: University of Houston >Lines: 11 >I have a Zenith 386-16 with drive type 39 (CDC #94155-86, an 80 Mb ST506 >type drive, which I assume is MFM. Does any one know if I can replace the >controller with an RLL controller and would that give me more disk space >and faster access. This certainly works with a number of drives but I do >not know about this specific one. Any comments? >Mike Benedik >Biochemical Sciences >University of Houston >Benedik@UH.EDU It might work, but it is certainly NOT!! recommended. With Seagate drives an R suffix (ex. ST277-R) denotes an RLL type drive. MFM drives generally are manufactured to lower specifications with regards to maximum bit density which is approx. 50% higher on RLL (26 vs. 17 sectors per track). BTW: MFM controllers with RLL drives are OK,a waste of the higher cap. Jim