mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Michael Thomas Niehaus) (04/27/89)
For any of you out there that are looking for a hard drive for your Macintosh,
you may want to take a look at this. It seems to be a fairly good offer, but
the quality, performance, reliability, etc., have not yet been reviewed or put
to the test.
-Michael
-----
Preference Hard Disks-55% DISCOUNT!
Company Name: Western Digital Corporation
Product(s) Name: Preference Hard Disk 20AP, 40AP, 80AP, 120AP
ISPN:
Is product available now?: Yes, 20AP and 40AP
If not, when will it ship?: May 1, 80AP and 120AP
Offer Begins: Now
Offer Ends: Open-ended
Offer Description:
We are pleased to announce a new demonstration unit program that entitles
dealers, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, user group members
and corporate accounts to purchase the Preference Hard Disk AP at special demo
unit pricing.
This offer is limited to a single unit per person, e.g. each member of a user
group, dealership, non-profit group, school, or corporate employee can purchase
one of each drive.
-- To order, call 800-331-8127 or in California, 415-960-3360. After April 1,
California customers can call the 800 number.
-- Preference Hard Disk AP Demonstration Unit Prices
List Price Demo Price
-- 20AP 20Mb, 85ms, 1:1 interleave $895.00 $399.00
-- 40AP 40Mb, 28ms, 1:1 interleave $1195.00 $537.75
-- 80AP 87Mb, 16ms, 1:1 interleave $1695.00 $820.00*
-- 120AP 122Mb, 15ms, 1:1 interleave $2395.00 $1050.00*
* Available May 1989
These units are compatible with Mac Plus, SE, SE/30, all Mac II models and
Apple IIe and IIGS with the Apple SCSI card. Upgraded 128K and 512K Macintosh
owners must have 128K ROMs and an add-on SCSI adapter.
To order the product(s) or to obtain more information, please contact:
Name: David Broudy
Company: Western Digital Corporation
Address: 2445 McCabe Way
City, State, Zip: Irvine, CA 92714
Phone: (714) 474-2033, (800) 777-4787 (call above 800 number to order)
AppleLink Address: D0829
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
This information is provided to the Developer Services group at Apple Computer
by the product's developer. Apple cannot warrant any third party's product.
Please consult the Apple Products Library or MENU/Software Library on AppleLink
or contact the individual company for further information.
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
--
Michael Niehaus UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!mithomas
Apple Student Rep ARPA: mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu
Ball State University AppleLink: ST0374 (from UUCP: st0374@applelink.apple.com)lauac@mead.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) (04/28/89)
In article <6958@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Michael Thomas Niehaus) writes: >For any of you out there that are looking for a hard drive for your Macintosh, >you may want to take a look at this. It seems to be a fairly good offer, but >the quality, performance, reliability, etc., have not yet been reviewed or put >to the test. > >-Michael > >----- >Preference Hard Disks-55% DISCOUNT! DON'T GET THESE DRIVES! I haven't had as much experience with Preference as I have with Seagates and Quantums, but from what I DO know: - the formatting software is brain-dead. - the drive cannot hook up to a LaserWriter IINTX. - Crashes are EXTREMELY difficult to repair, mostly because the formatting software is so brain-dead. If you feel you MUST buy this drive due to the low prices, then go ahead. Make my day. I can't recommend it. --- Alex UUCP: {att,backbones}!ucbvax!qal.berkeley.edu!lauac INTERNET: lauac%qal.berkeley.edu@ucbvax.berkeley.edu FIDONET: Alex.Lau@bmug.fidonet.org (1:161/444)
lih@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu (Andrew Lih) (04/28/89)
In article <23692@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> lauac@mead.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) writes: > >>Preference Hard Disks-55% DISCOUNT! > >DON'T GET THESE DRIVES! I haven't had as much experience with >Preference as I have with Seagates and Quantums, but from what >I DO know: > >- the formatting software is brain-dead. >- the drive cannot hook up to a LaserWriter IINTX. >- Crashes are EXTREMELY difficult to repair, mostly because the >formatting software is so brain-dead. > >If you feel you MUST buy this drive due to the low prices, >then go ahead. Make my day. I can't recommend it. Please, calm down...I have installed the Preference drives before on Mac systems and they came formatted already and nicely packaged. The only complaint I have is the SCSI dial in the back of the drive. It makes it kind of hard to change the SCSI address number. What has formatting software got to do with crashes? I have not found the Preference drives to be any worse than other brands. Western Digital is a respectable (listed on the AMEX) and has a good standing in the MS-DOS world. Their use support line is really annoying (just a bunch of recorded messages) however... Make you own decision, but I wouldn't flame them as much as you did... /lih =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= """"""" Andrew "Fuz" Lih Columbia University Center | @ @ | Instructional Computing for Computing Activities < ^ > \ - / lih@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu AJLUS@CUVMB.BITNET --- lih@heathcliff.cs.columbia.edu ...rutgers!columbia!cunixc!lih =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
lauac@mead.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) (04/29/89)
In article <1459@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu> lih@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu (Andrew Lih) writes: >In article <23692@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> lauac@mead.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) writes: >> >>>Preference Hard Disks-55% DISCOUNT! >> >>DON'T GET THESE DRIVES! I haven't had as much experience with >>Preference as I have with Seagates and Quantums, but from what >>I DO know: >>- the formatting software is brain-dead. >>- the drive cannot hook up to a LaserWriter IINTX. >>- Crashes are EXTREMELY difficult to repair, mostly because the >>formatting software is so brain-dead. > >What has formatting software got to do with crashes? I have not found >the Preference drives to be any worse than other brands. If the drive crashes and you want to reformat your drive, you have to use their formatting software. Which is brain-dead, and won't recognize a crashed drive as being a Western Digital drive. I admit, perhaps I was a little heated about the formatting software, since I had to deal with it fairly recently, but the facts still stand. I know Western Digital is well-established in the MS-DOS world, but they're not very established in the more demanding, more selective Mac environment. I still can't recommend them. --- Alex UUCP: {att,backbones}!ucbvax!qal.berkeley.edu!lauac INTERNET: lauac%qal.berkeley.edu@ucbvax.berkeley.edu FIDONET: Alex.Lau@bmug.fidonet.org (1:161/444)
alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) (05/02/89)
In article <23692@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> lauac@mead.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) writes: >In article <6958@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu >(Michael Thomas Niehaus) writes: >> [mentions Western Digital's 55% off offer on Preference drives] > >DON'T GET THESE DRIVES! I haven't had as much experience with >Preference as I have with Seagates and Quantums, but from what >I DO know: > >- the formatting software is brain-dead. >- the drive cannot hook up to a LaserWriter IINTX. >- Crashes are EXTREMELY difficult to repair, mostly because the >formatting software is so brain-dead. Nice to see someone on the net who is as opinionated, vitriolic, and 100% sure-of-himself... as I am. :-) That aside, I'd guess (read: confident but not certain) that Alex is right, on the following grounds: Western Digital is a fairly big name in the PC business. They make decent products there, and charge a price that's on a par with their name recognition. They tried the same pricing structure in the Mac market, with products sold as a commodity (20/40 MB drives), and no name recognition whatsoever. Does it surprise anybody that they couldn't sell any of them? If I ran WD I'd shoot the marketing types. Notice that that "special offer" goes for just about anybody on the planet. On the technical side, I would guess that they are using NON-SCSI disks with their own ST-506 to SCSI controller, for two reasons: 1) Alex says that they don't work with LaserWriters. Dead giveaway. 2) WD sells controllers to the PC market. They probably reused already- developed technology to reduce their cost. Somehow I don't think they're going to make it in the Mac market. So, if you buy them, you just might have trouble getting them serviced later. On the other hand, they're big enough to take some losses, so maybe they'll learn better and survive. --- Alexis Rosen alexis@ccnysci.{uucp,bitnet} alexis@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (last resort)