ms33@prism.gatech.EDU (Mike Sullivan, a.k.a. Sully) (07/30/90)
What is the reliability of the current RLL controllers on drives rated
for both MFM and RLL? I've been opposed to RLL due to the problems
they had when they first came out, but a salesman almost has me
convinced that their reliability is within acceptable limits (doesn't
that send up warning flags!) He also has talked about another type of
controller using ARRL format (by Perstore). This is suppose to get
even more storage space out of a drive than RLL.
I am also concerned that if I convert to RLL, many of my
hard-drive/hardware programs will not work (Spedstor, Coretest, etc).
My concern is: what programs will work, which ones I'll have to
replace with their RLL counterparts? This is not as important as the
reliability, but I would like to be prepared so I can at least put a
low-level format on the drive. I imagine that all the software will
work in a business as usual fashion, but nothing in the computer world
compared to cold-hard experience.
Anyone out there have any advice? In summary, my questions are:
1) Reliability of RLL (is it within acceptable limits?)
2) Reliability of ARRL (especially the Perscom Controller)
3) Is this totally transparent to ALL software, or will
software designed to low-level format or other hardware
specific actions need to know I'm using RLL?
Acceptable limits (reliability): Errors due to hard-drive should be rare
at best. Personally owned machine where owner gets
highly upset when data goes bad. Over 30 Meg of archives
updated on a semi-regular basis and drive gets used Med-High levels.
Thanks in advance,
Mike Sullivan
One of many Michael P. Sullivans, my views are expressly my own, and are not
endorsed by my boss, fellow workers, or any other Mike Sullivan. :-)
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Internet: ms33@prism.gatech.edu | Ga.Tech, Atlanta Georgia, 303326600m00n@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Jihad 'R US) (07/31/90)
I own an Adaptec controller for my RLL drive. I have had NO problems with it. SpeedStor, coretest, norton utilities, smartdrive, all work. - One thing you need to be aware of is that many ( like mine) need to be setup in bios with the user-defined drive type. Unfortunatly, some bios sets do not have the user defined type. \ Hope this helps, Rob Blair 6600m00n@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu
kraus@motcid (David Kraus) (08/01/90)
In article <11971@hydra.gatech.EDU> ms33@prism.gatech.EDU (Mike Sullivan, a.k.a. Sully) writes:
Anyone out there have any advice? In summary, my questions are:
1) Reliability of RLL (is it within acceptable limits?)
I've had a Seagate ST238 on my XT clone for about 5 years, and haven't had
any problems with it at all. Not even any bad sectors cropping up (knock
on wood).
3) Is this totally transparent to ALL software, or will
software designed to low-level format or other hardware
specific actions need to know I'm using RLL?
I personally wouldn't use anything that went THAT low-level. I've had a
copy of Speedstore for about 4 years that's worked with the RLL 238. It
just cared about capacity (cylinders and sectors/cylinder). Encoding
format made absolutely no difference.
I'll put it this way: I liked the RLL ST238 so much that I bought another
one when I was running a BBS. That drive has seen about 6 months
continuous use, and now whatever use I give my machine (about 2 hours/day).
The only problems I've had running 2 hard drives has to do with heat, and
that's just a mounting issue, soon to be solved.
--
Dave Kraus UUCP: ...!uunet!motcid!kraus
Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Division FidoNet: 115/777.11
Disclaimer: I didn't say anything.
Quote: "Dont' turn on the flashing lights. It's illegal, I think"dlow@hpspcoi.HP.COM (Danny Low) (08/02/90)
>What is the reliability of the current RLL controllers on drives rated >for both MFM and RLL? I've been opposed to RLL due to the problems >they had when they first came out, but a salesman almost has me >convinced that their reliability is within acceptable limits (doesn't >that send up warning flags!) He also has talked about another type of >controller using ARRL format (by Perstore). This is suppose to get >even more storage space out of a drive than RLL. Should be okay. The RLL reliability problem was due in large part to salesmen selling MFM only drives as RLL certified drives. Sometimes the combination works but reliability is not guaranteed to be any good. The important thing to remember about computer salesmen is the difference between a computer salesman and a used car salesman is the used car salesman knows when he is laying to you. Danny Low "Question Authority and the Authorities will question You" Valley of Hearts Delight, Silicon Valley HP SPCD dlow%hpspcoi@hplabs.hp.com ...!hplabs!hpspcoi!dlow