themaritimegirl | Formatting an MFM hard drive as RLL - will it work? @themaritimegirl | Uploaded June 2023 | Updated October 2024, 6 hours ago.
When RLL hard drives and controllers became available for personal computers in the mid-1980s, it quickly became discovered that you could format your existing MFM hard drive using an RLL controller for a 50% gain in capacity. But not all hard drives handled this well.
Let's throw the Epson Apex Plus's 20 MB Kyocera KC-20B MFM hard drive on an RLL controller, and see if we get a 10 MB increase, or if it will fall on its face.
Table of Contents:
0:00:00 - Introduction and Background
0:20:45 - Installing the RLL controller
0:27:22 - Testing the RLL controller
0:33:12 - Low-level formatting
0:46:57 - Testing with SpinRite
1:01:28 - Conclusion
Follow me on Mastodon:
https://tech.lgbt/@themaritimegirl
Patreon:
patreon.com/themaritimegirl
When RLL hard drives and controllers became available for personal computers in the mid-1980s, it quickly became discovered that you could format your existing MFM hard drive using an RLL controller for a 50% gain in capacity. But not all hard drives handled this well.
Let's throw the Epson Apex Plus's 20 MB Kyocera KC-20B MFM hard drive on an RLL controller, and see if we get a 10 MB increase, or if it will fall on its face.
Table of Contents:
0:00:00 - Introduction and Background
0:20:45 - Installing the RLL controller
0:27:22 - Testing the RLL controller
0:33:12 - Low-level formatting
0:46:57 - Testing with SpinRite
1:01:28 - Conclusion
Follow me on Mastodon:
https://tech.lgbt/@themaritimegirl
Patreon:
patreon.com/themaritimegirl