29 May
2007
29 May
'07
3:15 a.m.
On May 28, 2007, at 8:46 PM, Zane H. Healy wrote:
While these will work, you need a way to format them. A VAXstation
2000, is a nice choice, if you can find one.
Yes. I mentioned here awhile back that I was once told, by a now-
former DEC employee, that the MicroVAX/VAXstation-2000 formats drives
with a different interleave factor than the RQDX3 uses, resulting in
lower data transfer rates than one would expect by formatting
directly with the RQDX3 using the diag software on a VAX or a
PDP-11. Does anyone here know what the two interleave factors
actually are?
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
As an alternate, what are the options for MFM drives
other than the
DEC-labeled RD5x set? I have some other Micropolis and similar
drives
sitting around with similar capacities. Would they be recognized by
my controller (model# not handy at the moment, sorry.) Or did
the DEC
MFM controllers require a certain ROM on the drives?
I have taken bog-standard drives (of the correct make/model) and
used them with success on DEC RQDXx controllers. The mapping:
RD50 Seagate ST-506 5MB full height
RD51 Seagate ST-412 10MB full height
RD52 Quantum Q540 32MB full height
RD53 Micropolis 1325 71MB full height
RD54 Maxtor XT2190 159MB full height
RD31 Seagate ST225 21MB half height
RD32 Seagate ST251 42MB half height
Note that the larger drives are not supported by the older
controllers, etc. You'll generally be in good shape with an RQDX3.
If you don't have one, let me know; I must have twenty of them here.