Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!unmvax!ariel!ariel.unm.edu!sorc From: sorc@carina.unm.edu (Paul Caskey) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: MFM on RLL? Message-ID: Date: 14 Mar 90 04:17:25 GMT References: <2881@uwm.edu> Sender: news@ariel.unm.edu Distribution: comp Organization: The Village Lines: 27 In-reply-to: paravia@csd4.csd.uwm.edu's message of 13 Mar 90 21:28:01 GMT On 13 Mar 90 21:28:01 GMT, paravia@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Mark David Kakatsch) said: Mark> Can an MFM drive be connected to an RLL controller? I can get a Mark> 40Mbyte MFM drive for free, but I've got a '386 w/ an 65Mbyte Mark> RLL. (Gateway). I know that MFM is pretty slow for a 386, but Mark> since it would be free, I wouldn't mind...Thanks much. Very simply, the answer is: "No, not reliably." IOW, go for it. :-) RLL is tough on drives. If you have a drive that's made for MFM, but it's really tough, it may handle RLL. For instance, my roommate recently got an old DEC Rainbow with a 10 meg MFM drive. That computer and the drive in it had been sitting in a snow bank for a week before he bought it. I have a feeling it could probably handle RLL. However, for the average PC drive, chances are that if it was built tough enough to be an RLL, it *would* be an RLL. Therefore I suspect that forcing an MFM to do RLL is pretty risky. -- /*********/ Paul Caskey pcaskey@ariel.unm.edu Only lawyers represent anyone's ideas but their own. /*********/