jallred@bbn.com (John Allred) (07/15/88)
As promised, here are the responses I received from my SE hard disk inquiry. I ended up buying the Micah AT40 (46 Meg, 28 ms access time). Thanks for all the replies. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I, like you, couldn't imagine filling up 40 MB. So I bought a 40 MB disk for performance reasons. My machine is 3 months old, and I have 20MB used, and am looking for ways to simplify backup (800K floopies are a stone drag with this kind of space usage), and ways to get more room. A goodly chunk of my disk (about 7 MB) is tied up in images, (some clip art, some paint stuff of my own), which I find too useful to roll off onto floppies. If you don't gover the edge into art and/or font stuff, you may make it on 20MB, but my instincts say put a 40MB in. An 80MB would be nice, but backing up the 80 (or bigger) drives DEMANDS a disk cartridge with 20MB or more, or a tape of some sort. This, in turn, messes up the budget something horrible. Sigh... There is never an easy way out... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > 2. It lookes like you need to go to at least 40 Meg before > things get fast (29 ms for the Hyperdrive FI/40). However, I can't > image needing more that 20 meg worth of online disk storage. I thought the same thing -- I'll never use all 20Megs. That was December. By Jan., it was full. Adding a hard drive makes the Macintosh into a different computer. Once you get used to the speed, any data not on the drive will not be used. Everything you use will end up on the drive, and you will never touch a 3.5 disk again (except for annual back-ups). My system is 5.2Mbytes. (Start-up screens, sounds, 15Cdevs, 10 inits, QuickKeys, Font-DA Juggler, Phone book, Note pad, calender ...) Add 1Mbyte of Fonts & DA's. I'm a CS type person, so add 4M for MPW, 1M each for LSpascal & LSC. I use WORD: 350K + helpfile + dictionary. This is 13Mbyte, and I have covered only the everyday stuff. And no data. Add some lesser used programs, a few games, and its full. Then there is Hypercard.... Get the 40M drive if you can handle the extra $$. Extra speed and breathing space is a benefit you will enjoy every time you Mac. --- Are you getting an internal or external? If you are choosing, it sounds like external. Although internal seems like a good idea (compact package), they have a few drawbacks: 1. There is no way to turn the internal drive off. A hard disk is useless for most games. You cannot protect the drive from viruses or buggy software. 2. Rebooting on a crash doesn't allow the heads to park which is nasty. 3. Running older software is very risky - using a MFS system with HFS drive undoes the folders, and a crash can scramble drive. 4. A hard disk problem (which we all eventually have) means you lose the use of you Mac during the repair. --- I have a CMS SD-20 external drive. As soon as I can afford it, I'm getting a 40M unit. I'll use the 20M for a fast back up device and for archiving data. I have had good luck with the CMS SD-20. I did lose the power supply recently during a lightning storm, but the data was not damaged. CMS handled it under warranty through my dealer in 5 days (including UPS both ways). The nice thing about CMS drives is that they do not require head parking (they move the head to a "landing zone" if the unit is not accessed for some short period of time). ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > 2. It lookes like you need to go to at least 40 Meg before >things get fast (29 ms for the Hyperdrive FI/40). However, I can't >image needing more that 20 meg worth of online disk storage. I can't recommend any particular drive (my experiences have been with drives supplied by apple (which work very well, by the way). However, I can surely say you won't find the 40 meg drive too big. My experience with hard drives (mainframe, PC's, Macintoshes) is that they're never too big. With some of the big apple programs now available, you would find it fairly easy to fill a 20 meg drive (applications plus data). I think the 40 meg drive strikes a nice compromise between a 20 meg drive (which is too small for most people's taste) and a 80 meg drive which indeed is a lot of room. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Try Micah. They make an internal 46MB drive for the SE. $899. gets you 28ms access, 16 MB Shareware (included in that is 6MB Stacks) a 2 year warranty, all cables, drivers, MicahManager, MicahSecurity, etc. Micah's 800# is 1 800 782 0097. BTW, formatted capacity really is 46 megs, not bad seeing they call it an 'AT40'! ____ John Allred BBN Systems and Technologies Corp. (jallred@bbn.com) "What the President meant to say ..."