callen@inmet.UUCP (01/16/88)
This is a warning to anyone who may have ordered a 20 meg hard disk
from MacConnection. You MAY have gotten a less than wonderful drive.
BUT - you can probably get a better one if you call MacConnection.
Here's the story:
In late December I ordered the MacConnection 20 meg hard drive. The
drive used is a Rodime 652, which has a built-in SCSI controller.
The drive I received came with a sheet of paper stating that the drive
is a Rodime 652-B which works ONLY with the Mac Plus and NOT with 3rd
party SCSI ports. Well, I have a Plus, so it works for me, but suppose
I ever want to sell the drive? I have a friend with a Dove SCSI port on
his 512KE, so we tried it; sure enough, it doesn't work.
The formatting software also seemed odd - it did not agree with the
documentation shipped with the drive.
I called MacConnection and asked them about this situation. The person I
spoke to immediately told me that I had received the wrong drive and that
a replacement would be sent to me (and it was, arriving the next day in
true MacConnection style). This NEW drive contains what looks like a
Rodime 652-A (if I am reading the number right - just about the first
thing I did was take the cover off and look at the drive), and I received
formatting software that matched the description in the manual, as well
as backup software. I will find out tonight whether the drive works with
my friend's Dove SCSI port.
So anyway, if you recently got a MacConnection 20 meg drive and it did
NOT come with backup software and/or came with the funny comment about
not working with 3rd party SCSI ports, CALL MacConnection TODAY and get
the drive you are supposed to get. Evidently a number of these bad drives
were sent out.
(I wonder what's REALLY going on? My past experience with MacConnection
has been incredibly good, and they certainly took good care of this
particular screwup, but it also seems that if they KNOW they sent some
bad drives out that they should notify all recent purchasers and ask them
to check to see that they have the right goods. I'm probably just being
paranoid...)
-- Jerry Callen
Intermetrics Inc
733 Concord Ave
Cambridge, MA 02138
...{ima,ihnp4,harvard}!inmet!callen