tran@orion.arc.nasa.gov (Andy-Cuong Tran) (09/22/89)
To fellow netters and Supra Corp.:
I recently bought a Supra 45 meg hard drive for my ST
system. I'm very impressed with its speed, built-in clock
option, DMA thru port and SCSI thru port. Overall, it's a very
solid product. However, I've also discovered some very annoying
aspects of my hard drive:
1). The cable from the drive to the ST is only 28 inches
long!
2). The on/off switch is in the back of the unit.
3). I cannot boot off my floppy disk when the hard drive is
off and connected to the ST, even when the hard drive has not
been set to autoboot. This is important during extended periods
of game playing. Is this a characteristic of the Supra host
controller or of all devices connected to the DMA port?
4). My last and most serious complaint is the amount of
noise my Supra hard drive generates. The problem is not with the
built-in fan, but with the drive mechanism Supra used in my
model. In my case, it was a Miniscribe . The noise, I believe
is created by the constantly rotating platters. Is it typical
for the platters of a drive mechanism to be in constant motion?
If anyone out there has a Supra drive or has any suggestions
or comments, I would like to hear from you. The noise is
especially unbearable during long wordprocessing sessions.
Thanks in advance...
tran@orion.arpajlf@a.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu (Jack L Forester) (09/22/89)
In article <32314@ames.arc.nasa.gov>, tran@orion.arc.nasa.gov (Andy-Cuong Tran) writes: > To fellow netters and Supra Corp.: > > I recently bought a Supra 45 meg hard drive for my ST Ah.. a fellow Supra owner (mine's a 20 meg) [stuff deleted] > 1). The cable from the drive to the ST is only 28 inches > long! Your's is longer than mine (please no jokes! :-) > 2). The on/off switch is in the back of the unit. Only a minor annoyance for me. 3). I cannot boot off my floppy disk when the hard drive is > off and connected to the ST, even when the hard drive has not > been set to autoboot. This is important during extended periods > of game playing. Is this a characteristic of the Supra host > controller or of all devices connected to the DMA port? Really? I don't have that problem. Anybody? > 4). My last and most serious complaint is the amount of > noise my Supra hard drive generates. The problem is not with the > built-in fan, but with the drive mechanism Supra used in my > model. In my case, it was a Miniscribe . The noise, I believe > is created by the constantly rotating platters. Is it typical > for the platters of a drive mechanism to be in constant motion? I'll agree about the noise. It is definitely a lot louder than most other HDs. But the noise is coming from the actuator unit which moves the head assembly across the disk. The disk platters are always in motion when th HD is on. The spinup time is too great to have the disks spin only when they are being accessed. On mine, when there is no disk access, the fan is the loudest. You can't hear the drive motor. > If anyone out there has a Supra drive or has any suggestions > or comments, I would like to hear from you. The noise is > especially unbearable during long wordprocessing sessions. > Thanks in advance... > > tran@orion.arpa I need a copy of SUPBOOT.SYS. It seems that somehow I've lost it. I re- formatted the disk about a week ago and when I tried to reinstall autoboot, the program couldn't find the file. Now I have to boot with the floppy. (Not that's a pain, since I *rarely* use the floppy anymore.) Jack Forester jlf@a.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu
andyc@hplsla.HP.COM (Andy Cassino) (09/23/89)
| | I recently bought a Supra 45 meg hard drive for my ST |system. I'm very impressed with its speed, built-in clock |option, DMA thru port and SCSI thru port. Overall, it's a very |solid product. However, I've also discovered some very annoying |aspects of my hard drive: | | 1). The cable from the drive to the ST is only 28 inches |long! The cable is this short because a longer cable increases susceptability to electrical noise that can corrupt data. This is a pretty high speed interface and the shorter the cable, the more reliable the data transfers will be (in the absence of error-checking and correction). I use an ICD host adaptor which allows a longer cable (3 or 4 feet). They claim their adaptor can drive the longer cable due to a superior hardware interface. Also, ICD claims they are the only company that provides write verify capability in their software. This provides an extra level of protection against data corruption, but slows tranfer times 20%. I didn't know any of this before I bought my drive, guess I just got lucky. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author, who has no pecuniary interest in the companies mentioned. Copyright (c) 1989 by Andrew Cassino. All rights reserved. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % Andy Cassino % % uucp: hplabs!hplsla!andyc domain: andyc%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com % % Hewlett-Packard Lake Stevens Instrument Division % % 8600 Soper Hill Road Everett, WA 98205-1298 % % (206) 335-2211 % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
paul@cacilj.UUCP (Paul Close) (09/26/89)
In article <464@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu> jlf@a.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu (Jack L Forester) writes: >In article <32314@ames.arc.nasa.gov>, tran@orion.arc.nasa.gov (Andy-Cuong Tran) writes: >> 3). I cannot boot off my floppy disk when the hard drive is >> off and connected to the ST, even when the hard drive has not >> been set to autoboot. This is important during extended periods >> of game playing. Is this a characteristic of the Supra host >> controller or of all devices connected to the DMA port? > >Really? I don't have that problem. Anybody? I have a BMS200 board, and my ST doesn't work at all if the hd is plugged in the DMA port but not powered on. The people at BMS warned me against using the ST without turning on the hd, due to some sort of signal "float" problems. If you want to play games without the noise, unplug your hd from the DMA port. As for noise, I have no idea if this pertains to Supra drives or not, but some drives have a little "static tab" that sits on the end of the drive motor spindle. This tab can wear out and make a shrill loud noise. Maybe that's your problem? -- Paul Close paul@cacilj.CTS.COM ...!{uunet, ucsd, crash}!cacilj!paul The Obi-wan Kenobi method: "Use the Source, Luke" -Jim Fulton