--- Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > Jeff,
> >
> > The ST506 is a standard MFM drive...
>
> I beliueve that in the Apple Profile, only the ST506 HDA (and maybe the
> spindle motor board) is used. The standard control board is not. Instead
> there's an Apple board that connectes directly to the index sensor,
> cylinder 0 sensor, stepper motor, and heads.
It's reasons like this that I buy the old 5.25" mechs I see. I was
profoundly disappointed this year when I bought a Tandon TM602S (as
found in a Commodore D9060 hard disk) for $5, only to find that all
the fine wires that enter and exit the HDA have been snipped. The
board is there, but there is no harness to plug into it. I suppose
I can test the board on one of the TM602S drives I have that work
and put it in the appropriate pile as a spare for the future. I have
less confidence I could restore the harness. I suppose that if I
have a head-crash someday, I could plunder its wiring, but there'd
be the risk that the wiring was removed because _that_ had already
happened to the previous owner.
I was stoked because the last time I even saw a TM602S for sale, it was
$30 and I had to pay $70 to have it rebuilt (bad track 0 sensor and
platters in dubious shape) Mind you, this was 9+ years ago, back when
people _did_ have HDAs rebuilt and a 20Mb MFM disk cost a lot more than
$50.
Formatting problems aside, the DEC RD50 is an ST-506 mech. It'd be a
tough choice for me to repair a Profile with a DEC drive. I'd have
less of a problem pulling an ST-506 drive from an XT to do it. Not
as special.
-ethan
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Received on Thu Nov 29 2001 - 12:46:55 GMT