jhs@druin.ATT.COM (Jeff Shore) (10/29/88)
Greetings!
I have a couple of questions regarding mass storage
systems like hard disks. I'm considering getting
something to supplement my 1 Meg 1040 and 2nd floppy
drive. Recommendations, experiences, general info
are all welcome. Posting or e-mail are equally good.
I can summarize if I get enough info and there is some
demand for same.
1) Besides the Supra 20Mb disk, what are the
current preferences in hard disks of 20, 30,
40, ....Mb? What are the representative prices
of same?
I know prices are dropping rapidly for
XT and AT compatible drives, but am not sure if
that is reflected for Ataris as well.
2) Regarding the 10Mb floppies, what is the latest
info for 1040-compatible units/drives? Are they
still too new to know if there will be long-term
support, or if any significant [system eating]
bugs have shown up? Does anyone prefer the "normal"
HDs to the 10Mb floppies? What are the co$t$?
3) Is there some other medium I should be considering
besides the ones named in 1) and 2) above?
-- Jeff Shore at {..!ihnp4}!druin!jhshyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (11/01/88)
In article <330@druin.ATT.COM> jhs@druin.ATT.COM (Jeff Shore) writes: > 1) Besides the Supra 20Mb disk, what are the > current preferences in hard disks of 20, 30, > 40, ....Mb? What are the representative prices > of same? Just for reference, Maxtor and CDC offer nice big drives at around $2000. The Maxtor SCSI/ESDI drive at 380MB, 16ms access time, is a really nice drive. The CDC Wren-IV 327MB SCSI is also around $2000, 16ms access time, but last I heard this sucker was back ordered a good long time. (Don't let the numbers fool you; they both format to about 300MB.) These are for naked drives - to use on the ST, you also need to buy a power supply, some cables, and a SCSI controller card. (Adaptec or Berkeley Micro Systems seem to be the preferred names.) A case is also nice to put around it, and you should find an ST-to-SCSI host adapter board. (As far as I can tell, ICD and Supra's products are almost identical in this area. Although the ICD disk driver does write verification, and the Supra docs don't mention whether it does or not. Both have battery backed-up clocks on the adaptor board. Seems like a waste to me. I kinda wish they sold a version of the card that didn't have the clock - why pay for something I won't use? I get a clock with my RAM upgrades... Plus, the ICD and Supra clocks take up a logical unit number on the SCSI bus. Ah well...) -- / /_ , ,_. Howard Chu / /(_/(__ University of Michigan / Computing Center College of LS&A ' Unix Project Information Systems