DEC Pro380 disk drives

[Allison]

Ethan Dicks wrote:
> On 5/8/07, C H Dickman <chd_1 at nktelco.net> wrote:
>> After reading the documentation (RT-11 V5.04 release notes), the Pro is
>> capable of formatting the hard disk itself. RT11 even includes a program
>> for that purpose. It can only format standard drive types of course.
>>
>> DW.SYS (Pro hard disk for RT-11) includes geometries for RD50, RD51,
>> RD52C, RD52Q, RD52A, RD53 and RD31...
>> The hardware only supports 8 heads (3 select
>> lines).  The driver does not support partitions so there is a maximum of
>> 65535 blocks no matter how big the disk.
> 
> So does anyone have any docs to check for later versions of RT-11 and
> supported geometries?  I'm specifically thinking of the RD32 (ST-251)
> of which I have a couple on hand.
> 
> the drive would support more than 65536 blocks, but I certainly
> wouldn't be upset if RT-11 gave up at the 32MB mark.
> 
> -ethan
> 
Without the details to use larger drives (>32mb) use the LD driver to
partition it.

Personally ST251s while they work tend to run warm and fail often as a result.
If you want the 251 to last cooling is important.  I tend to use ST225s (20mb)
as they are bullet proof and heat is not a significant problem for them.
For the ultimate in bullet proof RD52 (quantum D540) it's the fastest,
most realiable and runs cool plus it's just under 31MB.   I try to use them
exclusively as I've not had one fail (I have 10 of them).

Allison