ST-251 Drives as RLL?

[Stuart Lynne]

In article <1933 at crdos1.crd.ge.COM> davidsen at crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) writes:
}In article <117 at mnopltd.UUCP> gatech!stiatl!mnopltd!neal writes:
}>
}>->good to reformat an MFM drive as RLL or not.  I am interested if anyone
}>->out there has taken an Seagate ST-251 42MB 40ms MFM drive, and formatted
}>
}>Yes. This will work.  For 5 months and 27 days.   It will roll over and die
}>with skillions of bad blocks at 6 months.   Anyone who tells you otherwise
}>is either a computer dealer who has been in business for less than 6 months
}>or someone who doesn't really use his machine.  
}
>  sixhub has been running a 251 RLL for over a year. I do not suggest
}running a 251 as the 2nd drive on an Adaptek controller, but not because
}of format problems (long story). With the WD1006VSR2 I have had no
}trouble. My wife has not seen any problems with this, either. She's been
}running a systems house since S100 was new tech (1978).
}
}  While ANY MFM drive can fail with RLL, I have never seen the problem
}you describe. They usually die within a day or run until they die of
}natural causes. Obviously every drive has a finite lifespan, no matter
}how it's used.

Not wanting to flog a dead horse here .... but I'll add my voice to the
chorus.

I ran an ST251 as RLL for about six months. It was in such bad condition
that you couldn't turn it off and on without manually turning the head off
the park track. This drive was a junk shop special! But it still worked RLL
until it died altogether.

I've run a dozen or so different drives RLL with the WD1006 with little trouble.Only one drive (Microscience) which wouldn't work and it was obvious from
the start.

I always recommend the WD1006 as the lowest cost speedup you can buy for
your Xenix box. $100 gets you a lot more speed and 50% more storage.

-- 
Stuart.Lynne at wimsey.bc.ca ubc-cs!van-bc!sl 604-937-7532(voice) 604-939-4768(fax)