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Wanted: MFM hard drives

ST251

ST251

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2020
Messages
146
Location
Northeastern US
Hello, as you've probably concluded from my username, I'm a bit of a hard drive junkie :p

I'm on the hunt for MFM or RLL hard drives. I'm mainly looking for broken ones to tinker around with, but I'm also looking for good ones as well just to add to my collection since I only have one at this point.
 
Well I'd never deny the offer to take hard drives off somebody's hands if they're giving it away, but I'm looking for those drives for a couple of reasons: mainly because I only have one MFM drive, but I'm also looking for broken ones because I want to try a few things on them that I would never do to my one working drive.

Would you tinker with an ST-251 that has no bad sectors? :p
 
Probably--I never fooled with the low-end drives much. Most of mine were big Miniscribe/Matxor/CDC FH drives. I think the smallest I have is an old Quantum Q540--still a FH drive. FH SCSI drives should still be pretty plentiful.
 
ST251 said:
Hello, as you've probably concluded from my username, I'm a bit of a hard drive junkie :p

I'm on the hunt for MFM or RLL hard drives. I'm mainly looking for broken ones to tinker around with, but I'm also looking for good ones as well just to add to my collection since I only have one at this point.
Click to expand...

I know these are expensive,

https://www.pdp8.net/mfm/mfm.shtml

but if you are going to play with MFM drives, you really need to have something to read and analyze them. Without one of these you usually need the original controller to read them...
...you also don't say where you always usefull when shipping bits...
 
Chuck(G) said:
Probably--I never fooled with the low-end drives much. Most of mine were big Miniscribe/Matxor/CDC FH drives. I think the smallest I have is an old Quantum Q540--still a FH drive. FH SCSI drives should still be pretty plentiful.
Click to expand...
I'm hoping to find a full height drive myself. Hopefully it'll fit in this case I have though

g4ugm said:
I know these are expensive,

https://www.pdp8.net/mfm/mfm.shtml

but if you are going to play with MFM drives, you really need to have something to read and analyze them. Without one of these you usually need the original controller to read them...
...you also don't say where you always usefull when shipping bits...
Click to expand...

I actually already own a computer with an MFM controller, so there are no worries on that front. It's a 486 that I got to work with a WD MFM card. As for where I am, I'm in the north eastern United States.
 
I have an ST-251 MLC 1 that works most of the time. Occasionally it won't spin up and I can't be bothered to figure out why. Once it's going it works perfectly, but I retired it out of caution
 
kdr said:
Out of curiosity, what sort of horrible things are you planning to do to these poor drives?
Click to expand...

Come on, I'm not crazy enough to mess up an actual working MFM drive. Those will be added to my collection of one. That's why I'm also specifying I'll take broken ones. Those would be the ones that get messed with.
 
ST251 said:
I'm hoping to find a full height drive myself. Hopefully it'll fit in this case I have though



I actually already own a computer with an MFM controller, so there are no worries on that front. It's a 486 that I got to work with a WD MFM card. As for where I am, I'm in the north eastern United States.
Click to expand...

As I said the typical MFM controller won't read all MFM drives. Often the controller will only read drives written on the same controller. I have a few ST506 drives that have not been near an PC which is why I have the MFM emulator. There are also few low-end VAX that used MFM drives and had real odd-ball formats....

Also putting a drive in a modern(ish) machine runs the risk of the OS writing on the drive. Not a good thing.
 
g4ugm said:
As I said the typical MFM controller won't read all MFM drives. Often the controller will only read drives written on the same controller. I have a few ST506 drives that have not been near an PC which is why I have the MFM emulator. There are also few low-end VAX that used MFM drives and had real odd-ball formats....

Also putting a drive in a modern(ish) machine runs the risk of the OS writing on the drive. Not a good thing.
Click to expand...

You realise he probably doesn't care at all about the contents of the drive right? Any ST-506/412 MFM controller can work with any ST-506/412 MFM drive after it has LLFed it
 
maxtherabbit said:
You realise he probably doesn't care at all about the contents of the drive right? Any ST-506/412 MFM controller can work with any ST-506/412 MFM drive after it has LLFed it
Click to expand...

Yes, I realize, sad, chucking the baby out with the bathwater and probably not realizing there were desktop computers other than IBM PCs.
Mind you I just about remember having a tin bath and no bathroom. The joy of english terrace housing.

Must assemble the MFM emulator I bought to throw in the VaxStation / VaxServer 2000. That is a fun computerr.
 
Specifically where in the northern US are you?
I think I can shed a bad 33mb Kalok and a Miniscribe plus a parted out Apple Widget HDA if you are interested in early voice coil drives. Problem is shipping across the border won't be fun.
 
g4ugm said:
Yes, I realize, sad, chucking the baby out with the bathwater and probably not realizing there were desktop computers other than IBM PCs.
Mind you I just about remember having a tin bath and no bathroom. The joy of english terrace housing.

Must assemble the MFM emulator I bought to throw in the VaxStation / VaxServer 2000. That is a fun computerr.
Click to expand...
I figure if I've bought it from someone here, they probably have already backed up the contents of their drives. I could be 1000% wrong, but I also can't justify spending $200 for what I'm assuming is going to be a one time use device.

NeXT said:
Specifically where in the northern US are you?
I think I can shed a bad 33mb Kalok and a Miniscribe plus a parted out Apple Widget HDA if you are interested in early voice coil drives. Problem is shipping across the border won't be fun.
Click to expand...
How much would you want for the Kalok and the Miniscribe? I'm in New York by the way.
 
I would just like to thank NeXT and maxtherabbit for the transactions. All the drives arrived at the same time today. It's funny, my controller was able to read all the drives (minus the Miniscribe since unfortunately that didn't spin up at all). I even got that Kalok to get past the "smacking the heads against the limit" problem - ONCE - so that was interesting. It made all the scary noises I expected it to during the short period that I did get it to operate. The ST251 on the other hand didn't spin up the first time I powered it on as expected but it did spin up on the second try. That drive tested ok as well (bad sectors don't count here). I'm probably going to use this one instead of the ST251 that's currently in my 486. The one I had originally tested with 0 bad sectors and I want to try to keep it that way :p

Again, thanks. I'm still open to more drive offers though, working or not.
 
Just wanted to add that now in addition to MFM drives, I'm also looking for the cables to go along with them
 
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