21 Dec
2007
21 Dec
'07
10:11 p.m.
On Thursday 20 December 2007 20:22, Dennis Boone wrote:
The GRI system I had a few encounters with back in '85 or so had two drives of
this sort, in racks. We also had a customer that had brought one in, a
sort of a low-profile (less than desk height) floor-standing unit that I
think he said had been attached to a Wang computer or word processor or
something. That sucker was *heavy*! I forget now which is which, but each
of these had a fixed platter and a removable platter and in one case was 5MB,
in the other 10MB.
Somewhere I have a service manual for these drives.
It's a
Control Data CMD 9448-96 "phoenix" modular (removable/fixed) disk
drive in unknown condition. It reminds me of a RL01/02 disk. It looks to
have everything there but until I find a manual, I know little about
it. It is supposed to have a capacity around 80MB, has a 14" platter and
is real heavy; 120+ lbs, so shipping is probably out of the question.
Prime used to sell these. They were available in 32, 64 and 96 MB
models. The bottom section contains fixed platters. The top section
has a door which folds down, exposing a track onto which you can slide a
pack; as the door closes, the pack slides in and drops into the cavity.
The fixed capacity was 16, 48, or 80 MB depending on model, removable
pack capacity was about 16 MB. Filters are critical. They're SMD
interface devices. Part of the reason they're so heavy is that there's
a 1"+ thick base plate in there to keep the beast stiff. A 96MB model
has 5 fixed surfaces and one removable surface. The removable surface
is number 1; the fixed surfaces start at number 16. I have a platter out of a pack which experienced a
head crash in our
drive, years ago. When the room was air conditioned, the piping for the
air handler (a stand-in-the-corner model) was run out the window and up
to the roof. Since the window wouldn't close all the way, and this was
in what passes for a downtown district around here, pigeons had a
tendency to sit on the ledge, and occasionally a feather would stay
behind. One of these feathers inexplicably made its way into the drive
one day...
Grinding up disk oxide makes a _terrible_ smell.
I wasn't there when it happened, but I did acquire a platter that has a
similar issue. You can see a line going around one side of the platter. I
used to have it hanging on the wall in my shop...
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin