IBM drives in a Kaypro

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Wed Feb 12 23:10:44 2003

On Wed, 12 Feb 2003, Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote:

> On Wed, 12 Feb 2003, Tony Duell wrote:
> > According to the O&A TechRef, there are 2 distinct 40 cylinder drives :
> > The 'Slimline' drive used in the PortablePC and PCjr. This des not have
> > the asterisk
>
> Originally a Qume "Qumetrak 142"?
> They existed BEFORE the 1.2M was released, and therefore before the
> asterisk.
>
> Which brings up that when I listed the various parameters that might
> matter, I failed to include step rate. The Qume drive was arguably the
> first "half height" 5.25" drive, and it was SO slow that changes needed to
> be made in the OS to keep from timing out waiting for it to seek.
> Some say that it was the worst drive ever sold; I don't agree - I had some
> BASF 2/3 height drives that were worse.

Don't forget the Remex 2/3 height drives. Probably the noisiest
5.25" drives I ever ran across, but seemingly could not be killed!

                                                - don

> > The double density (360K) drive for the PC/AT. This does have the asterisk.
> > They are difference electrically (made by difference companies?). I think
> > the use of pin 34 on the connector differs too.
>
> At about the time that the 1.2M was released, there was a change in the
> use of pin 34. One use was "READY"? the other was "DISK CHANGED"?
>
> > Officially you shouldn't interchange them.
> But that never stops us.
Received on Wed Feb 12 2003 - 23:10:44 GMT