Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tikal!toybox!msa
From: msa@toybox.UUCP (Mark Anacker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: end of the Compaq hard-drive saga
Keywords: $$$ and more $$$
Message-ID: <106@toybox.UUCP>
Date: 6 Mar 89 17:56:00 GMT
Organization: USWest NSI, Bellevue, WA
Lines: 28

[]
Hello again, net....

In our last episode, you'll recall my Compaq 40mb disk had
"negatively exceeded the platter/head separation tolerance"...
one of the heads did a nose-dive into the oxide.  Well, I
finally resolved the problem.  I bought a third-party drive
for around $740 from our local *Land.  What I got was a CMS
40mb drive with an interface board (the one attached to the
drive) from Conner Peripherals.  It only cost me about twice
what it should have :(.  It is interesting, however, that the
original drive was a 5.25", while the replacement is a 3".

It just burns me that Compaq used custom interfaces for both
the 40mb and their so-called "ESDI" 130mb drive.  I've gone 
over the schematics for both drives, and they really played
some games with the control leads to make sure you didn't put
a cheap drive on their controller.  I haven't figured out why
the system wouldn't boot with an AT controller in place instead
of the Compaq one, but I'm sure it's in the BIOS somewhere.

These guys are IBM-compatible in more than just hardware!

-- 
Mark Anacker, US West Network Systems Inc., Bellevue, WA
{...uw-beaver!tikal,...!thebes}!toybox!msa -or- msa@toybox
    "Their mission read, To Boldly Go,
     But how ill-bred, To phrase it so." - Phil Garland