Western Europe Wanted: Working ST-506 MFM Hard Drive for BBC Winchester unit

[The IT Crowd]

Closest Major City

York

Hi all
I'm currently looking for a fully working ST-506 MFM Hard Drive for my BBC Winchester unit.

Full height would be preferable. Something like Seagate, NEC, Rodime. Microscribe etc.

I'm based in the UK.

Please let me know if you can help me.
Thanks

 

[SunDown79]

I have a NEC D5126 that can go.
Let me know if that interests you and I will start testing it.

 

[The IT Crowd]

I have a NEC D5126 that can go.
Let me know if that interests you and I will start testing it.

Hi there.

Yeah, please. That sounds great.

Please message me with your findings.

Many thanks

 

[SunDown79]

Working on it (will probably take some time though, bare with me )

 

[SunDown79]

So I tested it and it works really well, low level formatted with a WD1002-27X and formatted it after that on a stock 3.3 MS-DOS all ok too.
But there is something weird going on, I have 32599552 available bytes......on a, according to the specs I found, 20MB harddisk.
But this harddisk has a "APT Applied Peripherals Technology Belgium NV" sticker on it so I wonder if it had a "tune up" or something, is that even possible ?

 

[SunDown79]

Ow wait...the WD1002-27X is a RLL controller.....duh....sorry. I will dig up a real MFM controller and test again!

 

[Dwight Elvey]

Hi
I'm just curious. Are you looking for a real ST-506 drive or just a ST-506 compatible drive?
Dwight

 

[The IT Crowd]

Hi.

Just sent you

Ow wait...the WD1002-27X is a RLL controller.....duh....sorry. I will dig up a real MFM controller and test again!

Hi there.

I've just sent you a message.

Many thanks... Oh, and apologies regarding the delay.

 

[The IT Crowd]

Hi
I'm just curious. Are you looking for a real ST-506 drive or just a ST-506 compatible drive?
Dwight

I'm looking for an ST-506 drive, not really sure if the adapted controller would accept RLL. I have a feeling it will though.

 

[g4ugm]

If it needs an MFM drive I strongly suggest getting an MFM emulator from https://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/
Even if you are lucky to find a working ST506 I think its unlikely to work for long...

 

[Dwight Elvey]

I'm looking for an ST-506 drive, not really sure if the adapted controller would accept RLL. I have a feeling it will though.

Then you know that a ST-506 drive is only 5megs in size. That is why I asked. A drive with ST-506 compatible interface might go to around 100 megs as I recall ( not really important number though ). I have a real ST-506 drive that I used with my Forth computer. These drives have a killer issue if you accidentally rotate the drive backwards. The back edge of the heads are really sharp and will dig into the media. It is important to park the heads near the center of the disk if you are transporting as a slight backwards rotation is less likely to damage the disk.
Dwight