Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!visix!nsx!kent
From: kent@nsx.Berkeley.EDU (Ken Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Are all hard drives with odd # of heads the voice coil type?
Message-ID: <1991May1.171149.7416@visix.com>
Date: 1 May 91 17:11:49 GMT
References: <6173@trantor.harris-atd.com>
Sender: news@visix.com
Reply-To: kent@nsx.Berkeley.EDU (Ken Turner)
Distribution: na
Organization: Visix Software Inc., Reston, VA
Lines: 21

In article <6173@trantor.harris-atd.com>, sonny@charybdis.harris-atd.com (Bob Davis) writes:
|> 
|> 	When I see that a drive has an odd number of heads, do I ALWAYS
|> know that the missing head is used as a servo track for positioning
|> a voice coil head assembly over the proper track?
|> 
Good enough deduction.  A head could be mapped out through software, though.
There might be other cases, too.
 
|>	And that ALL drives with an even number of heads is a drive
|> with a head assembly positioned by a stepper motor?
|> 

No, the drive could have an embedded servo.



Ken Turner
Software Engineer
Visix Software Inc.
Reston, Virginia