🚀 go-pugleaf

jdb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian K. W. Hook) writes:

[deletions]
>
>To sum: [IDE drives have...]
>Higher capacity, lower cost, MUCH lower power consumption, relatively high
>speed (vs. RLL and MFM), and high efficiency.
>
>Brian

Could someone help me to decide between IDE and ESDI?

OK, now I'm confused!  I'll be buying a 486-25 with 4-8 MEGs of
RAM in the next week (from Gateway).  The Maxtor 200 MEG 15ms IDE
drive is standard in the system, but I was planning on getting
a Micropolis ESDI drive instead.

I know about the physical makeup of each drive and basically how
each works, and I'm convinced that the IDE is about as reliable
as an ESDI drive (in the 150-200 MEG range, anyway), but here are
some questions:

1) Will my IDE drive work if/when I change to OS/2? 

2) I want to have as much control over my system as possible.  I
   know that I can easily low-level format an ESDI drive, my ESDI
   controller will read the factory-set bad sectors from the drive
   or allow me to enter them manually from the keyboard.  I can
   easily change the interleave on an ESDI drive.  ESDI controllers
   allow for power sequencing in case I get another ESDI drive...

   In other words, it seems to me that an ESDI drive is very versatile
   (it is compatible with DOS, Unix, OS/2, etc.) and it will allow
   me to configure/change it however I want.

   Will I be able to do these things with an IDE drive?


Thanks for any help!

Stephen M. Smith  \  +  /
<smsmith@hpuxa.   \+++++/    " #*&<-[89s]*(k#$@-_=//a2$]'+=.(2_&*%>,,@
 ircc.ohio-state. \  +  /      {7%*@,..":27g)-=,#*:.#,/6&1*.4-,l@#9:-)  "
 edu>             \  +  / 
 BTW, WYSInaWYG   \  +  /                              --witty.saying.ARC