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From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: HD for at&t 7300
Message-ID: <38508@cup.portal.com>
Date: 27 Jan 91 02:25:58 GMT
References: <81564@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 44

slimick@unix.cis.pitt.edu (John C Slimick) in <81564@unix.cis.pitt.edu> writes:

	Can those with experience make some suggestions 
	for 40 MB hard drives for a 7300? I've noticed
	in the new Computer Shopper that 40 MB HH ST506
	MFM's are getting harder to find (other than the
	ubiquitous Seagates and Miniscribes).

Given that one never seems to have enough HD capacity (you'll ALWAYS fill 'em
up no matter what the size! :-), you may wish to consider a larger HH drive.

CompuAdd is (was?) a large retailer of the Miniscribe 3085.  I bought two of
those from them last year and they're working just fine; gives a 7300 the same
HD capacity as the largest "stock" 3B1 (which uses the FH 6085) and note the
3085 is faster than the 6085.

Another choice is the Microscience HH-1090 for a wee bit more capacity than
the 3085, but I haven't heard anything positive or negative about this drive.

The 3B1 I showed at our Users' Group meeting this past week had a 3-1/2" 20MB
Kyocera, and I understand Kyocera also mfd 40MB drives. (And before you ask,
I used that drive ONLY because I paid $100 for it several years ago and would
not have lamented its demise if my experimenting with the monitor and &tc.
zapped it.  It actually is a FAST drive and is the one I had in a 7300 during
the 1988 West Coast Computer Faire in the Users' Group booth running GNU Emacs,
gcc, and a buncha games, and IS the drive in the 7300 system I stated earlier
this month was faster than the 6386 (also in our booth) running SVR3.2).

The point being: what you need is a drive that conforms to what is now known
as "ST-506/412" with MFM recording.

If you're really on a budget, and as much as I dislike saying this, the Seagate
ST251-1 drives can be found for around $225 brand-new nowadays.

If you're not all-thumbs, you CAN simply bring-out (longer) ribbon cables from
the 3B1/7300 to an external "shoebox" containing a larger drive.  Note that
running unshielded ribbon cable will VERY LIKELY cause RFI, so you don't want
to do this if you're in an area where's there's ANY chance of interfering
other equipment (such as radios, TVs, etc.).  I offer this only as a TECHNICAL
possibility and do NOT recommend you pollute the airwaves with RFI under ANY
circumstances since you WILL run afoul of the law and you'll find your picture
on the walls of US Post Offices.  :-)

Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com ]