Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!ginosko!aplcen!jhunix!ins_bjjb From: ins_bjjb@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Jared Brennan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: ICD's RateHD and ST251 access times Summary: Aha! Step pulse rate does make a difference! Keywords: ICD RATEHD Seagate ST251 access time Message-ID: <2162@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> Date: 30 Jul 89 17:52:01 GMT References: <2160@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> Reply-To: ins_bjjb@jhunix.UUCP (Jared Brennan) Distribution: usa Organization: The Johns Hopkins University - HCF Lines: 28 In article <2160@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> I write: > I've been having major speed problems with my ST251 drive (installed >in place of the Tandon 263 20Mb mechanism in my SH204). Like, it's really >slow, you know? Being too lazy to do anything about it, I waited a month, >then reformatted the drive. Before the reformat, the drive was interleaved >1:1, and returned a 383Kb/s transfer rate and 448ms access time using the >RATEHD program from ICD. After the reformat, at interleave 1:3 (or 3:1), >the transfer rate was 161Kb/s and 443ms access time. Hmmm... > [questions deleted] Well, having nothing better to do after having taking all the software off my hard drive, I kept reformatting it and varying the parameters each time. When I changed the step pulse rate from its default value of 0 to 1 (or 2, or 3, or 4) in the Supra formatter, lo and behold! The access time dropped to 34ms. (As a side note, it was my impression that the drive was an ST251-0, 40ms access time. Looks like it's a ST251-1, rated 28ms. Gosh, and here I was thinking I had paid a good price for an ST251-0...) (-8 (-8 (-8 (-8 (-8 (-8 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) ^^^ Did I mention that I was happy about this state of affairs? ^^^ Anyway, I would like to thank those of you who have sent replies to my request for help. Don't worry, next time I'll have a real humdinger for you, promise! 8-) -- Jared Brennan BITNET: INS_BJJB@JHUNIX,JHUVMS ARPA: ins_bjjb%jhunix@hopkins.ARPA UUCP: allegra!hopkins!jhunix!ins_bjjb "How many pins could one stick in the head of an angel?"