ST-251 Drives as RLL?

[Wm E Davidsen Jr]

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.
-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen at crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
"The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called
'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see
that the world is flat!" - anon