Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!oliveb!sun!burgundy!jborza
From: jborza%burgundy@Sun.COM (Jim_Borza)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: RLL controller
Summary: I concur
Message-ID: <77576@sun.uucp>
Date: 14 Nov 88 22:21:19 GMT
References: <299@deimos.cis.ksu.edu> <400@mccc.UUCP> <1038@pilchuck.Data-IO.COM>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
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In article <1038@pilchuck.Data-IO.COM>, del@Data-IO.COM (Erik Lindberg) writes:
> Sigh. Here we go again... I think this piece of mis-information was
> started by a conspiracy between Western Digital and Seagate. And it
> keeps getting spread around and around. 
> 
> RLL was originally designed to work with *standard* hard drives. And
> it will, with any high quality drive/controller combination.
[.....etc...]

Absolutely!  I have tried using a number of drives and have found that most
drives are suitable for RLL use except for the very least expensive.  I think
the low-end is just marginally acceptable with MFM so any attempt to cram
them with more data simply fails on that account.  A real interesting com-
bination (which I'm using now) is a Micropolis 1325 (71MB/MFM) and an Adap-
tec 2070A controller for over 100MB.  Micropolis specifies their drive for
MFM only, and makes no mention of any other coding schemes.  Informal (and
inadvertent) temperature testing confirms this combination is stable over
a wide range.  Generally, I agree that drives built for industrial and 
commercial use are very conservatively spec'd.  Many of the "smaller"
drives are available as 'refurbs', or used.  Sometimes the price of two
of these drives is less than an equivalent new product - you get a spare,
too.