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From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: hard drive compatibility
Message-ID: <37258@cup.portal.com>
Date: 26 Dec 90 23:13:30 GMT
References: <2610@cod.NOSC.MIL>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 35

hepner@cod.NOSC.MIL (Thomas A. Hepner) in <2610@cod.NOSC.MIL> writes:

	I have an opportunity to get an 40 MB 3 1/2" hard drive made by
	Western Digital for a very good price.  The drive is an RLL drive,
	model number WD93044-A.  It appears to be very similar to the drive
	that came with my A590 hard drive/controller system.  Will this drive
	work in place of the 20 MB drive that comes with the A590?  If so, is
	there any thing special needs to be done, and if not, what type of
	drives are exceptable?.

Two points:

1. I seriously doubt Western Digital "makes" anything; they just affix their
name to that which is made for them by others (although it could be their
design (as their chips, for example, are manufactured by AT&T since WD doesn't
have their own silicon foundry)).

2. Your referencing "RLL" implies the drive sports an "ST506/412" interface,
so it's VERY likely the drive WILL WORK (assuming the A590 has that kind of
interface and not SCSI (I haven't seen an A590)).  All you will need to know
is number of heads, number of sectors per track, and the number of cylinders.

"2,7 RLL" drives typically have either 26 or 27 secotrs per track.

What I don't know is whether the A590 supports RLL.  If it doesn't, and you
still want that drive (i.e. the price is right :-), you could still use it
formatted to the "standard" MFM at reduced capacity.  RLL encoding usually
adds 50% more capacity to a HD, everything else being equal, and assuming a
drive is RLL-certified.

But note that a drive certified with RLL at 40MB will, with MFM, have 33% less
capacity (26.8MB) so you'll have to make a decision if the A590 doesn't support
RLL.

Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]