--- "Jerome H. Fine" <jhfinepw4z_at_compsys.to> wrote:
> >Ethan Dicks wrote:
>
> > > "Jerome H. Fine" <jhfinepw4z_at_compsys.to> wrote:
> > > Also, the very last and probably least was the RC25 drive from DEC
> > > (probably the worst hard drive that DEC ever produced from what I
> > > have heard from others...
> > I used to have an 11/725 w/RC25 (long story). I didn't think the drive
> > was all that awful.
>
> Jerome Fine replies:
>
> I never heard from anyone that the RC25 was even a reasonable drive,
> let alone good. You are the first person to report anything approaching
> a reasonable experience with the RC25.
My experiences were limited to two drives, mine and the other one I
mentioned. Neither one died prematurely. I won't even try to claim
these are ordinary experiences.
> By 1990, SCSI disk drives were so large... that the RC25 was probably no
> longer able to offer much competition in any case - even if the hardware
> had been perfect.
I had my RC25 in 1986. My boss paid $4,000 for the 11/725 w/license
and I got it from him later in the year for something around $1,400.
At the time, my only other hard disk (not counting the rack of DF-32s)
was a pair of RL01s that I moved between my PDP-8/a and my PDP-11/23. I
didn't have a PeeCee and my Amiga didn't have a hard disk yet.
By 1990, ISTR my biggest SCSI disk was 200MB.
> I am NOT saying that the RL02 was a bad drive, just how the storage
> situation changed between 1983 and 1990 when the RL02 and the
> RC25 had become a wee bit out of date.
No argument there. I got my first RL02 when they were _way_ past
current (ISTR paying $200 for one, shipped), but only to upgrade
a box that previously had an RL01 as its primary storage. If I
could have gotten an SMD controller or the like, I probably would
have, but I'd already dropped a few bills on an RL8A and an RLV11...
Maybe not superior storage technology for the day, but being able
to move data around on removable packs was kinda handy. Most folks
had the DEC stuff, not the new, expensive Sony stuff, at the time.
-ethan
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Received on Thu May 09 2002 - 20:58:28 BST