On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 1:09 PM, Robert Armstrong <[email protected]> wrote: > If you actually get an RC-25 drive working, I'd love to hear about it. I > have three RC25s (one actually in my 11/725 and two spares) and none of them > work. They were never very reliable drives, even when brand new, and are > possibly the worst drives DEC ever made.
Ain't that the truth. I had a 11/725 with a working RC25 back in the 1990s, and I've semi-recently replaced it with a different 11/725 that did not come with a removable cartridge so I've not been able to spin it up to test the internal platter. Hopefully it works, but if it doesn't, (see below). > Fortunately for an 11/23 or 11/83 there are lots of alternative drives > available. There are. Unfortunately, for Unibus machines (11/725 especially), there are not as many alternatives. One I've seen is to nibble a chunk out of the rim of the cover skin (to prevent pinching) and run a BC-11-A Unibus ribbon cable out to a BA-11 and stick any number of controllers in that, such as an easy-to-find-but-power-hungry UDA50. Also good for adding more serial, etc. Just put RAM in the CPU box and leave all the peripherals in the external BA-11. Not supported by DEC, but it works fine. I've also heard of people using Emulex and other 3rd-party SMD and ESDI controllers. Those aren't too expensive. Unibus SCSI, OTOH, is not common, but a joy if you can find one. -ethan
