Fun. I dont know what geography this was for, but some drives I didnt recall seeing that were famous (to me at least) not mentioned:
- Seagate ST-238 - the 30mb RLL version of the ST-225
- Seagate ST-251 - the 40mb MFM
- Seagate ST-4096 - full height 80mb
I also didn't see Rhodime or Kyrocera.
I remember the first time I opened a Compaq machine with a Conner peripherals IDE drive. I was baffled. What the hell is this ? Definitely wasn't going to initialize that with Debug: G=C800:5. The classic way to low level most MFM drivers in the era. There was no google to put in a part number to get details on.
Kyrocera... there is a name I have not heard in a long while!
We had off and on luck with those. I worked for a CAD reseller / consultancy firm at the time. Did a lot of hardware, systems engineering type work and we were always looking for high performance deals.
The Seagate 10K drives were bread and butter, but it often made sense to try other drives for cost, size, and sometimes availability reasons.
Used the crap out of those, mostly in SGI workstations, which delivered nearly 100 percent of what the drive could do. Loved those disks, hated the noise!
They did run hot. We used to put them in these little SCSI boxes. Each box had a fan. As long as that fan operated, life was good.
One day, while in the server room, we heard the death whine! A Cheetah was dying a heat death in its box!
The peeps in there wanted to shut it down, and I said no way! Get the data off of it RIGHT NOW.
And get me dry ice stat!
A copy began as soon as we could mount secondary storage, and it began!
I insulated the drive with a towel and baggie I found, and was about to apply the ice when a cord got bumped!
Bssssssuuuurclunk!
Shit.
This drive needs to spin one more time or we are screwed. Turns out the company data on that drive was important, as in we don't have jobs and why did the backup not work, OH MY GOD, type important!
Got it, check!
I buried the drive in the dry ice, got secondary storage lined up and ready, applied power and nothing.
Shit, shit, oh shit!
Ok, give it 5.5 volts and try again! Nothing. Give it 6! Seven! It whined and moved a little.
Ok, back to 6, and I took the "do not remove" cover off and nudged the platters as the power was applied and it spun up!
Yes! Hell yes!
I slapped the cover back on, tightened just two screws and buried the screaming drive in the ice and time to copy?
FIVE LONG MINUTES
We got the data. That drive almost died twice, and I would pick it up gently, change orientation, until it got quieter, and then just freeze in place, holding it.
Right after I heard, "copy complete', I heard and felt a thunk as the thing tried to leap out of my hand!
It locked solid.
Whew!
Was an intense 5 minutes. And I got kudos for mooching a few more minutes out of what should have been a dead drive.
Fortunately, I left high end systems engineering in the early 10's. Faced a choice:
Level up and really commit, probably end up in a datacentre, or consultancy of sorts
, or...
ditch it all and do something else.
So, I went and did something else!
Literally cleared out the bunker full of sgi machines and several higher end PC's. I piled it on the front lawn and gave it to some guy who was absolutely stoked! I still grin. Those machines were well loved. No doubt about it.
I then went small. Back to my roots! Cleaned up my Apple //e and wrote some code, 6502 and, or 65816 acting as 65802 of course due to how the hardware works.
And banged around some on my Atari 800XL too.
Then a friend sent me the datasheet for the Parallax Propeller chip, and OH My!
Those things are fun, and I would easily call the P2 the Amiga of microcontroller!
And have pretty much stayed small since then. No regrets.
Embedded systems are a lot of fun, and my retro skills are entirely relevant.
Now, that is not to say vices are not a part of computers. They are. Deffo.
But, doing fun things is for sure a great alternative to medicating ones [insert it here] away!
- Seagate ST-238 - the 30mb RLL version of the ST-225
- Seagate ST-251 - the 40mb MFM
- Seagate ST-4096 - full height 80mb
I also didn't see Rhodime or Kyrocera.
I remember the first time I opened a Compaq machine with a Conner peripherals IDE drive. I was baffled. What the hell is this ? Definitely wasn't going to initialize that with Debug: G=C800:5. The classic way to low level most MFM drivers in the era. There was no google to put in a part number to get details on.
We had off and on luck with those. I worked for a CAD reseller / consultancy firm at the time. Did a lot of hardware, systems engineering type work and we were always looking for high performance deals.
The Seagate 10K drives were bread and butter, but it often made sense to try other drives for cost, size, and sometimes availability reasons.
Used the crap out of those, mostly in SGI workstations, which delivered nearly 100 percent of what the drive could do. Loved those disks, hated the noise!
They did run hot. We used to put them in these little SCSI boxes. Each box had a fan. As long as that fan operated, life was good.
One day, while in the server room, we heard the death whine! A Cheetah was dying a heat death in its box!
The peeps in there wanted to shut it down, and I said no way! Get the data off of it RIGHT NOW.
And get me dry ice stat!
A copy began as soon as we could mount secondary storage, and it began!
I insulated the drive with a towel and baggie I found, and was about to apply the ice when a cord got bumped!
Bssssssuuuurclunk!
Shit.
This drive needs to spin one more time or we are screwed. Turns out the company data on that drive was important, as in we don't have jobs and why did the backup not work, OH MY GOD, type important!
Got it, check!
I buried the drive in the dry ice, got secondary storage lined up and ready, applied power and nothing.
Shit, shit, oh shit!
Ok, give it 5.5 volts and try again! Nothing. Give it 6! Seven! It whined and moved a little.
Ok, back to 6, and I took the "do not remove" cover off and nudged the platters as the power was applied and it spun up!
Yes! Hell yes!
I slapped the cover back on, tightened just two screws and buried the screaming drive in the ice and time to copy?
FIVE LONG MINUTES
We got the data. That drive almost died twice, and I would pick it up gently, change orientation, until it got quieter, and then just freeze in place, holding it.
Right after I heard, "copy complete', I heard and felt a thunk as the thing tried to leap out of my hand!
It locked solid.
Whew!
Was an intense 5 minutes. And I got kudos for mooching a few more minutes out of what should have been a dead drive.
I was a smoker at the time. Yeah, knocked one back the instant the task was done.
Fortunately, I left high end systems engineering in the early 10's. Faced a choice:
Level up and really commit, probably end up in a datacentre, or consultancy of sorts
, or...
ditch it all and do something else.
So, I went and did something else!
Literally cleared out the bunker full of sgi machines and several higher end PC's. I piled it on the front lawn and gave it to some guy who was absolutely stoked! I still grin. Those machines were well loved. No doubt about it.
I then went small. Back to my roots! Cleaned up my Apple //e and wrote some code, 6502 and, or 65816 acting as 65802 of course due to how the hardware works.
And banged around some on my Atari 800XL too.
Then a friend sent me the datasheet for the Parallax Propeller chip, and OH My!
Those things are fun, and I would easily call the P2 the Amiga of microcontroller!
And have pretty much stayed small since then. No regrets.
Embedded systems are a lot of fun, and my retro skills are entirely relevant.
Now, that is not to say vices are not a part of computers. They are. Deffo.
But, doing fun things is for sure a great alternative to medicating ones [insert it here] away!