🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <C15zKJ.7K1@compsci.liverpool.ac.uk>, pss@uxb.liv.ac.uk (Mr. P.S. Spencer) writes...

>The question was: is there any reason why I can't buy a hard disc from a
>PC dealer (which means that it would be almost half the price in some
>cases) and, provided I've made sure that it drives the disc, buy a
>controller card from an Acorn dealer. If there is no reason why this
>won't work, then I should be able to get a 170Mb IDE for about $350 (no
>pound sign on this terminal) inc VAT and delivery!
> 
>In case it's important I've got a 4Mb A3000 with RO3.10 installed, but
>nowt else.

The problem is that it's a bit hit and miss. You don't know for sure it'll
work despite being 'standard'. Still, I've gotten 2nd hand DEC SCSI drives
working on my Archimedes with the following controllers:

	Acorn, Oak, Cumana and maybe ARXE (I'm hoping to find out soon).

	Morley's SCSI does NOT work with DEC SCSI drives (RZ22 and RZ23)
	To Morley's credit they bent over backwards to solve the problem
	but admitted defeat and gave a full refund.

The tricky part with DEC drives is that they don't spin up on power on,
and don't recognise SCSI commands UNTIL they've been spun up with START UNIT.
Makes setting up the controller for them fun!

A friend has an ST506 drive working - it was an RD52. The ST506 is the
standard controller on A410/1 etc. I've not had any experience with IDE -
I prefer SCSI, I can plug more drives in! I'm currently on a 40Mbyte ST506
inside my A410/1 with an external RZ23 (100Mbyte). Once I get a beefier PSU and
cables, I'll add my RZ22 (52Mbyte). Lots of space and spare drives if things go
wrong!

Pete Goodwin
goodwin@edieng.enet.dec.com