On Fri, 7 Feb 2014, David Gesswein wrote:
I did a little searching and some IMI units use a non
ST506 interface so
without changes my unit can't deal with them. The IMI 77xx are neat
looking drives.
Indeed; 8" platters, a 'real' voice coil and a transparent cover to let you
watch the action. As a matter of fact this weekend I'm planning to see if I
can revive a 7710.
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On Fri, 7 Feb 2014, Steven Hirsh wrote:
Corvus used the IMI 5006, 5012 and 5021H depending on
the storage
capacity. From everything I can see, these are (or should be) plain
vanilla MFM drives.
That's interesting; are you sure that 5021Hs are ST-412 drives? The 5021H
drives that I have all have the IMI interface and almost definitely came
from the factory that way.
Some of the 5 1/4" IMI drives were available in both versions for a while,
with the IMI interface or the ST412 version (as well as a custom 'raw'
version) and conversion kits were even available, but I always assumed that
the original model numbers would be different.
FWIW AFAIK their first 5 1/4" drive was the 5007, unusual in that it was in
a plastic chassis and used an external optical index sensor; many fond
memories of having to clean out dust and realign without losing client
data...
I also have an IMI interface 5018H but don't recall what its specs are.
The more I think about this, the more I think
they've taken some pains to
ensure it will only work with IMI drives - maybe some sort of special
operational mode?
I'd be surprised but it's certainly possible; Corvus and IMI were closely
connected ever since Corvus began with an 8" 77xx-based hard drive cabinet
for the Apple ][, and in fact they ultimately merged.