29 Jul
2005
29 Jul
'05
11:50 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
Maybe you want to try interfacing the HDA from a modern drive, with
unknown embedded servo patterns, etc, to the electronics from an ST506. I
don't think that's totally trivial.
That's a secondary issue. Once you have something that looks like an
ST506 drive to any controller you care to name, and which stores the
bitstream in semicondcutor memory, you can then consider a server that
loads images from, say, a SCSI drive into that memory.
I think you're overthinking this. I can't see it being that hard to
adapt the mechanical bits of a different drive to a given set of
electronics. Come to that, I don't really see how it could be that hard to repair ST506 drives, assuming they had not suffered
a catastrophic
head crash.
OK, I have an ST412 (maybe an ST506, it's one of the early ones) where
the hall effect sensor in the spindle motor has failed. Now, it should be
possible given a moderate clean room to dismantle the heads and platters
(and that's the only way that spindle motor will come out), but then
what? It was put together with a press, there are probably ferrofluid
seals on the shaft, etc. It's not going to be easy to take apart and get
togerther again. I know I don't have the tools to do it.
-tony