🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan21.051124.1248@cmkrnl.com>, jeh@cmkrnl.com writes:
> The RD54 is a Maxtor XT-2190.  MFM recording, with ST506 interface.  (Hint:
> MFM is an encoding method, not an interface spec!)  

  Right. 1224 cylinders (allegedly +2 for maintenance use), 15 heads, 17
sectors/track in MFM mode. You can run these in RLL mode (25 or 26 sectors/
track) although Maxtor doesn't certify them for RLL operation.

> The DEC versions are supposedly modified for lower start-up current and a
> quieter access mechanism (though mine, which has a DEC RD54 label, is certainly
> noisy enough :-).  Other than that, they're identical and interchangeable with
> the Maxtor-labelled drives.  

  Well, the DEC "quiet mods" have more to do with the power-up sequence than
operation - non-DEC 2190's make a really *loud* BWEEP! as they test the servo
circuits. I believe the noise you're hearing is the spindle bearings failing
(which is the way most Maxtor's die). It gets louder and louder until one day
you wonder if your office is being strafed. Of course, Maxtor no longer offers
any extended warranty on their repairs (you send them a dead drive and way too
much money, and they send you somebody else's drive that they claim to have
fixed, with a 90-day warranty). How much is too much money? Well, getting an
8380S fixed is $450, where for twice that amount I can get a new Fujitsu 2624
which is 520Mb formatted instead of 320Mb, is 3.5", is synchronous SCSI-2 in-
stead of async CCS, and has a 5-year warranty instead of 90 days.

  MFM drives have pretty much gone by the wayside these days - I dumped all of
my old RD53/4 drives at $100/$250 each and was glad to get that. The "PC revo-
lution" has dropped the prices on newer drives to really low prices. A good
120Mb IDE can be found for about $200, and the controller for maybe $18 more.
Of course, that only helps if you have a PC. If you're putting drives on a DEC
system, you're stuck with the RD's (for older systems) or SCSI.

> (Thanks to Terry Kennedy and Don Stokes for this information.)

  I guess I should read this newsgroup more often, eh? 8-}

	Terry Kennedy		Operations Manager, Academic Computing
	terry@spcvxa.bitnet	St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA
	terry@spcvxa.spc.edu	+1 201 915 9381