Subj : Bluetooth To Ethernet To : Ky Moffet From : Barry Martin Date : Sat Apr 25 2026 17:25:00 Hi Ky! > > KM> If it was a Seagate MFM drive like an ST225, it used Disk Manager > > KM> to lowl-level format the drive, but it was not loaded as a > > KM> translation layer. > > ST225 sounds familiar but than it was a common drive. > KM> Probably the most common of the consumer-grade MFM drives. If it > KM> was an aluminum thing the size of an average hardback and a > KM> whopping 20mb, it was likely an ST225. > That pretty much describes the hard drive of my first XT; nine months > later I was offered and bought the upgrade: better video card and a > whopping 40 MB hard drive! ...Networked the two to combine 'em. 60 MB > of storage?! I'll never run out of space! KM> LOL. Not even a starter kit today. Even basic RAM amount is more. > KM> I have in my Closet a 20mb IDE drive from 1991 (the first ones > KM> came on the market in 1989). It still works, if you have an > KM> old-type controller card to attach it to. It doesn't understand > KM> the onboard IDE that came along in the late 486 era. > I thought the controller cards had to match the drive? Or did you just > 'short cut' your statement? KM> Some did, some didn't. A lot of MFM/RLL drives had proprietary KM> cards, others worked with any compatible card. IDE HDDs didn't KM> need a proprietary card and most would work with any IDE card of KM> the era. In both cases the cards had a couple of jumper blocks to KM> control addressing and ports that if you didn't have the jumper KM> docs or they weren't printed on the card, you were SOL. OK, so I was right about the MFM cards under some conditions. ...Recall when I talked with the Western Digital technical support they did any IDE controller and hard drive -- mix-and-match type of thing (they didn't phrase it that way). KM> But onboard IDE apparently does something different, or the BIOSs KM> that support the HDDs did, and now the very oldest drives no KM> longer work. More paperweights! ...I'm trying to remember what that old-old drive is in the storage box -- Banker's Box with the other hard drives. It's full-height, not half-height. ...I think I still have it. KM> That 20mb originally came with an IBM 286 that had both onboard KM> IDE and took 72 pin SIMMs (when even 486s still took 30 pin KM> SIMMs) so who knows how 'different' it was, and I don't think it KM> survived the Culling prior to the Great Northward Migration. Right. I haven't moved in decades but have occasionally culled stuff just because too old and wil never use it. ...Nice to have spare parts on hand, but if no possibility of use. (Hey look! an AGP video card!) > Thanks! Usually redirect the output to a file on the RAM Drive, which > is 5 GB. (Hmm: 5,000 MB -- that's 250x the capcity of my original hard KM> Astonishing, isn't it! And the output file was probably bigger KM> than your original HDD, too! Quite probable! Or at least would fill half! KM> And now we have single files that are routinely larger than the KM> best drives of 25 years ago.... Yes! ¯ ® ¯ BarryMartin3@MyMetronet.NET ® ¯ ® .... Now I have an electric vehicle, I'm never going back to an acoustic one. --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.47 þ wcECHO 4.2 ÷ ILink: The Safe BBS þ Bettendorf, IA þ RNET 2.10U: ILink: Techware BBS þ Hollywood, Ca þ www.techware2k.com --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com (454:1/1) .