MFM/RLL data recovery

[Tom Peters]

At 04:14 PM 4/4/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>On Mon, 4 Apr 2005, Randy McLaughlin wrote:
>
> > If you are trying to recover files you are probably wasting your time, the
> > XT controllers used unique formatting and you will never read the data off
> > of the drives without using controllers indentical with ones used
> > originally.  It is not good enough to use the same brand or even chipset.
>
>This doesn't make much sense.  Can you please explain further?

I agree.

I've had problems with controllers that can be jumpered to lie about drive 
geometry being mismatched with the geometry used to format the drive in the 
first place, but WD MFM controllers of the same era could usually be 
counted on to read any given MFM drive within their specs, and the RLL 
controllers likewise (with RLL drives). Else how did I replace drives, or 
controllers, sometimes separately, on many a service call?





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