Uncreative Labs

Joined: 05 Aug 2008 Posts: 23

Does anyone know what kind of controller that I need for a Maxtor XT-2190? This is a 190MB full height, 5 1/4" drive. I know that it can be used with either an MFM or RLL controller, but as I recall some of the more common MFM controllers have problems with drives this size.

The drive spins up when power is applied. Seems okay, doesn't make any "weird" noises. The motor is fairly loud, about as loud as the two ST-225's that I have in my XT. Not sure if this is normal or an indication that the drive is worn. Sounds like a small jet engine spooling up, LOL.

Joined: 20 Nov 2004 Posts: 589 Location: Shandong, China

Wow, that's quite an impressive MFM drive. I could have sworn MFM drives topped out around 80MB or so. For a second I thought it must be ESDI, so I looked it up and sure enough it's an MFM drive. It should be no problem to get the drive going in an AT class system where all drive parameters are user definable in the BIOS, but you're going to have a problem getting something like that going in an XT, at least using full capacity. The MFM controllers that come with XT systems are usually only good for 10 or 20mb drives.

The best MFM controller I've ever owned is a Western Digital WD1002A-WX1. That one supported fairly large MFM drives, but the largest I've ever tested is 50mb. The WD1004A-WX1 which supposedly replaces it may be even better:

http://artofhacking.com/th99/c/U-Z/20224.htm

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

I had that exact drive in my former loaded Compaq Deskpro/386 w/ 8mb ram

Nice drive (quicker than I expected) but not windows 95 compatible (the 9x dos can't be fit on for some reason) LoL