[pups] What hard drives to look for for PDP-11 use?

[allisonp at world.std.com]

> 
> 1.  What mfm hard drives from the non-DEC world could be adapted to
>     work on a PDP-11?

Many, any that are similar to ST225(RD31) and ST251(RD32) or have the same
CHS as RD52 (Quantum D540), MIcropolus 1325(rd53) or Maxtor2190(rd54).
Those disks were DEC baged but not DEC made and are findable.  there are
many similar out there as well.
 
> 2.  Can any scsi drives be used (RZ-23's or that kind of thing?).

Yes if you have a SCSI card that is MSCP compatable.  THese are scarce
 as many are still in service or quickly picked up.

> I often run across lots of smaller DEC scsi drives in MooU surplus,
> as well as assorted MFM drives from retired AT crates.  IF I can
> find out what is worth saving to use, that would be great info
> to have handy, whilst dumpster diving.  At a buck or two a chassis,
> it is worth saving a few drives, provided I know what to save.

There is a good chance they are useable depending on the controller 
in your DEC hardware.

> I will assume the target OS is 2.11BSD or 2.9BSD, since those seem
> to handle the greatest assortment of hardware types.

Someone else will confirm but 2.11 handles MSCP so that means RQDX
controllers for MFM or many of the SCSI controlers that speak MSCP.

> Can any of these non-DEC drives be adapted to MVII use?

See above list.


> Can any of the early MFM or ESDI Sun drives be used?

Yes, with the right controller, some caveats.

Hopefully you will get more detailes from others.

Allison

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