moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (05/03/89)
I got a used Mirror Magnum 800AE 800K drive this week, and promptly hooked
it up to my Mac SEx on Monday. It wouldn't format or read any drives, so I
figured it was broken. But this morning, I brought it into work and tried
it out on three Mac Plusses, and it worked fine. Confusing, no?
So I called Mirror technologies, and was told that the Magnum 800AE was
incompatible with the SE/30. Runs fine with a Plus or SE, and they think it
works with a IIcx (II and IIx machines got no external floppy port) -- but
not with a Mac SEx! I asked what kind of incompatibility they could have
had that wouldn't let it run with strictly with a Mac SEx; they said
something vague about the SEx also being able to hook up to external
SuperDrives, and drive confusion. [Side note: apple just announced an
external SuperDrive. For ~$650. Talk about laughable pricing...]
I asked if there were any software patches they knew of (INITs or
something), and the tech said no. Anyone familiar enough with Mirror floppy
technology to say whether such a "software fix" is possible? I'd appreciate
hearing from you on it...
Oh, well, my folks are getting a Mac Plus this weekend -- I'm sure they
could use an external floppy... :)
"There are no big name people here, only those of
us with bigger mouths than others."
-- Dan'l Dennehy-Oakes
---
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, hplsla, thebes, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>hammen@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Robert J. Hammen) (05/04/89)
>So I called Mirror technologies, and was told that the Magnum 800AE was >incompatible with the SE/30. Runs fine with a Plus or SE, and they think it >works with a IIcx (II and IIx machines got no external floppy port) -- but Actually, I'd bet their drive is incompatible with the new SWIM disk controller chip found in the IIx, IIcx, and SE/x (oops, I mean SE/30). And Mirror is not a company that I would put faith in doing anything about the problem... Speaking of external SuperDrives, has anyone out there got any experience with the Peripheral Land SCSI SuperDrive? I saw it at MacWorld/SF, and PLI was claiming that it would run faster through the SCSI port than an Apple drive would going through the serial disk controller. It also had the advantage of being usable for Plus, SE, and Mac II owners, and another nice thing about it was the $399 price tag... Robert /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / Robert Hammen | hammen@csd4.milw.wisc.edu | uwmcsd1!uwmcsd4!hammen / / Delphi: HAMMEN | GEnie: R.Hammen | CI$: 70701,2104 | MacNet: HAMMEN / / Bulfin Printers | 1887 N. Water | Milwaukee WI 53202 | (414) 271-1887 / / 3839 N. Humboldt #204 | Milwaukee WI 53212 | (414) 961-0715 (h) / ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////