polish@lexington.columbia.edu (Nathaniel Polish) (06/18/86)
Has anyone out there had experience with the "Sider" disc by First Class Peripherals for the Apple // family? I am interested in reliability and experience with the company. Thanks Nat Polish@cs.columbia.edu
moore@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU (Andrew M. Moore) (06/19/86)
>Has anyone out there had experience with the Sider disc drive...? I've owned a Sider for nearly a year now. Never any problems with it, except for the time when the controller card got smoked (my own fault). When I sent the card back, I was told the unit would get "first priority" and their claim was that any unit averaged 48 hours in-house repair time, but my unit seemingly received no such treatment. But you'll get that with many places. I'm not too upset about that. My sider is one of their older ones -- the newer Siders have revised power supplies which don't burn out under prolonged usage as the older ones did (mine has yet to do this fortunately). The older ones also had some kind of metal strip which vibrated and made loud noises after prolonged usage. I haven't noticed this on mine. Both of these problems are fixed in the newer drives though. I am pleased with its performance under CP/M, DOS 3.3, and especially ProDOS. SUPERFAST under ProDOS. I don't use Apple Pascal, so I can't comment on that. Perhaps the largest flame I have about First Class Peripherals is that they want $60 for upgraded installation software! That's ridiculous! The CP/M block size under the Sider is 8K, which results in much lost space when using the CP/M operating system. The new installation software lets you have as low as a 2K block size, which is darned good for a hard drive. But there's NO WAY they're getting $60 out of me for that, I mean, I *AM* a customer already aren't I? Flame.... Any specific uestions about the Sider, feel free to ask. >>> TO ANY PRODOS USERS I am so impressed with the Sider's speed under ProDOS that I want to start using this operating system much more. I have hardly any software for it though. Can anyone point me in the direction of some public domain or unsupported commercial software (or provide me with your catalogue)? I have a II+, not a //e, so must be able to run on the II+. -drew arpa: MOORE%MIT-EECS@MIT-MC.ARPA uucp: ...mit-eddie!moore us: Box 121, North Quincy, MA 02171
jerry@uwmeecs.UUCP (Jerry Lieberthal) (06/20/86)
> Has anyone out there had experience with the "Sider" disc by First Class > Peripherals for the Apple // family? I am interested in reliability and > experience with the company. > > Thanks > Nat Polish@cs.columbia.edu I have a Sider drive for my //e, which I have been using for about 2 months now. My experiences with the Sider have been excellent (I also run Diversi Dos on it). Unfortunately, I cannot make the same claim when dealing with the company. First Class Peripherals sells the Sider drive by direct marketing; as such, they really have no organization for support, etc. The manual is poorly written in terms of attempting to configure the Sider (I have been a Systems Programmer for 15 years, so being a novice wasn't the problem). In addition, the method of configuration for the Sider is not only clumsy, but wasteful in application. In terms of support, don't expect to ever get an answer by calling their technical support 800 number. I tried for a week and a half. The line is ALWAYS busy, and they rarely call back if you leave a message. This was also the experience of several other Sider owners that I have spoken to. In sum, though, it is a reliable piece of equipment. I have the 20 meg version, and am fairly satisfied with it. - jerry ihnp4!uwmcsd1!jerry
julerio1@polyob.UUCP (A1 jose ulerio1 ) (06/22/86)
> My sider is one of their older ones -- the newer Siders have revised > power supplies which don't burn out under prolonged usage as the older > ones did (mine has yet to do this fortunately). The older ones also had > some kind of metal strip which vibrated and made loud noises after prolonged > usage. I haven't noticed this on mine. Both of these problems are fixed > in the newer drives though. > I can vouchsafe for the sound and power improvements. My Sider hard drive seemed to be one of the supply-defective ones, so I sent it back and upgraded to the new version. The newer version has a built-in safety feature that does not allow the Sider motor to startup until the Apple's power is started. It also is indeed much quieter than the previous version, but it does still make a barely perceptible hum, ok if you use it at a site and not at home. Ours has been used continously for the past 3 months non-stop to operate an Apple-based BBS, so the power problem is no more. > I am pleased with its performance under CP/M, DOS 3.3, and especially > ProDOS. SUPERFAST under ProDOS. I don't use Apple Pascal, so I can't > comment on that. > > Perhaps the largest flame I have about First Class Peripherals is that > they want $60 for upgraded installation software! That's ridiculous! > The CP/M block size under the Sider is 8K, which results in much lost space > when using the CP/M operating system. The new installation software > lets you have as low as a 2K block size, which is darned good for a hard > drive. [...] I just wish First Class had made a provision to let you format the drive ANY way you wished. Ergo, only formatting for DOS and PRODOS. I don't use CP/M that often, and hardly ever Apple Pascal. Wouldn't it make sense to be able to format only for the OS'es you used instead of having those nagging 100K or so worth of unusable space lying around doing nothing? > > >>> TO ANY PRODOS USERS > I am so impressed with the Sider's speed under ProDOS that I want to > start using this operating system much more. I have hardly any > software for it though. Can anyone point me in the direction of some > public domain or unsupported commercial software (or provide me with > your catalogue)? I have a II+, not a //e, so must be able to run > on the II+. > > -drew > arpa: MOORE%MIT-EECS@MIT-MC.ARPA > uucp: ...mit-eddie!moore > us: Box 121, North Quincy, MA 02171 Some good programs to get include Pro-Byter from Beagle Bros, Merlin Pro (if you want to start futzing around with MLI calls), and a semi-public domain hard drive selector called ProSel, from Glen Bredon. Pro-Byter has many good Prodos-based utilities you can use to learn more about Prodos including a disk editor that can edit raw sectors on hard drives, and other goodies. Their obligatory tip book which comes in this package is not only a scream (or moan, if you prefer) at times but has lots of tips & tricks about Prodos. Sorry I don't have any prices on hand, but a quick look in any good Apple // mag would set you on the right path. On another note, I vaguely recall someone mentioning how he was able to do enough futzing with interrupts on the Apple Cat II Modem so that he was capable of doing terminal emulation and debugging a 6502 program at the same time. Forgive me for not remembering your name if you're reading this, but whomever you are, could you post or email to me a short explanation of how you did it if you could spare the time? I recently bought an Apple Cat Modem with a 212 option, but the Advanced Programmer's manual doesn't seem to help me much with interrupt handling.. Multitudinous thanks in advance.. Jose M. Ulerio Department of Transportation Planning and Engineering Polytechnic University, Bklyn, NY ... philabs!ron1!polyof!polyob!julerio1