Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!netxcom!dhlmis!pmahler From: pmahler@dhlmis.DHL.COM (Paul Mahler) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: MFM as an RLL drive? Keywords: MFM to RLL Message-ID: <2185@netxcom.DHL.COM> Date: 14 Dec 89 20:10:11 GMT References: <2373@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> Sender: news@netxcom.DHL.COM Reply-To: pmahler@dhlmis.UUCP (Paul Mahler) Distribution: comp Organization: DHL Systems, Inc., San Mateo, CA Lines: 21 In article <2373@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> kaleb@mars.UUCP (Kaleb Keithley) writes: >In article mlm@cs.brown.edu writes: >> Is it possible to use a MFM hard disk drive with an RLL >> controller? Are there particular MFM drives that will do it? >> How would I tell? > I have several 71MB micropolis drives that I have been using for some time with an adaptec rll controller. Micropolis stated that the drives are NOT rll certified. The secret is to use spinrite from Gibson research. This program will do a surface analysis of the disc and spare out any bad sectors. It provides two levels of analysis, a deep one for first time use on a disk, and a less deep one for periodic re-checking. Spinrite gives you a nice map at the end that shows any problems and how they were corected. After having used spinrite I would hesitate to try using an mfm drive with an rll controller without it. Paul Mahler Sunday & Associates uunet!plato!paul (415) 644-0440