Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!oberon!pollux.usc.edu!papa
From: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A2000 hard disks
Message-ID: <5837@oberon.USC.EDU>
Date: 20 Dec 87 08:40:30 GMT
References: <2515@killer.UUCP>
Sender: nobody@oberon.USC.EDU
Reply-To: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Organization: Felsina Software, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 34

In article <2515@killer.UUCP> jdp@killer.UUCP (Jim Pritchett) writes:
>To:  CBM and others out there
>
>     I have just upgraded to the A2000 and I have some questions about adding
>a hard disk to the Amiga.

>2.  My dealer reports that there are variations in the A2090.  It seems that
>    some of them will support a very fast 40 Meg 3.5" Rodime drive, but most
>    will not.  He says that there is a difference in the manufacturer of the
>    chips on the cards.
>
>3.  Has anyone successfully used the Seagate ST-251 40 Meg drive on with the
>    A2090?  Someone on CompuServe reported that this is an RLL drive.  Does
>    this mean that the A2090 will not use the full space available?  Is it RLL?

I am running the Seagate ST251 40 Meg, with 2 partitions (20 Meg each) with
the A2090 with absolutely NO problem.  They are rated at 40 msec. average 
access time, but that should go down to about 30 msec. with two partitions
as above.  Now that is definitely NOT a slow drive.  NO, the ST251 is NOT an
RLL drive.  The ST251R is. I tested mine with only 1 40 Meg partition and the 
A2090 worked just fine. Among the 5.25" Seagate drives, this is the split up:

MFM drives: ST225 (20M), ST251 (40M) ST251-1 (40M-28msec)
RLL drives: ST238R, ST251R, ST277R (not OK with the A2090)
SCSI drives: ST225N, ST251N, ST277N (64M), ST296N (85M)

>
>4.  Has anyone found a reasonably priced 3.5" drive bigger than 40 Meg?  Please
>    provide info

Tough luck.  5.25 drives are now "relatively" inexpensive.  3.5 drives are
still relatively expensive; more expensive if SCSI instead of ST506.

-- Marco