jts@siemens.UUCP (11/06/87)
Sorry, but it's time for the bimonthly "Do people have advice on hard disks"
question. (Just as a side note, I just learned that "bimonthly" is ambiguous.
My dictionary claims that it means both "every two months" and "twice a month".
How appropriate.)
Back to the problem at hand. I currently have a double-floppy SE and am
looking for an internal hard drive to put into it. The drive should have 40 or
60 meg. I'd prefer one that sits on top of the second floppy over one that
replaces the second floppy. I've run across two such drives so far:
1. LaCie Cirrus 60 meg, $899. You may remember an article a while back
from a person who was happy to have bought (as it turns out) an
external drive from them.
2. ProApp 40 meg, $1295 ($1075 from the Savings Zone. They aren't in
stock and could take a month to get, special order.)
There are a number of drives that involve replacing the second floppy:
3. Warp Nine 45 meg, $899 (with return of old drive; $999 without).
4. CMS Pro 40 meg, $1395 ($995 from the Savings Zone.)
5. IBCN 40 meg, $1050.
6. General Computer Corp. 40 meg, $1599.
The Cirrus intrigues me the most, since it's cheap, large, and wouldn't replace
the second floppy. (On the other hand, replacing the floppy would close up one
more hole for fan noise to come out of. Hmmm. :-)
Does anyone out there have any experience with internal Cirrus drives by LaCie?
How is LaCie's batting average with hardware reliability? (Or, since LaCie is
run by the fellow who used to run Kammerman Labs, what was Kammerman Labs's
batting average?) How noisy is this drive? Will the heat generated by the
drive cause problems for the floppy drive it sits on? (Warm floppy disks can
expand enough to cause read errors after they cool.) Their external drives are
supposed to be pretty fast; any information on the internal drives? Do they
deal well with fragmentation? Or will I have to rebuild the disk every week?
Similarly, do people have experience with any of the other models above?
Or any models not above?
Please send mail; I'll be happy to summarize and report back to the net.
Thank you.
Jim Sasaki (jts@siemens.com, jts%siemens.com@csnet-relay.arpa,
...princeton!siemens!jts)
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The opinions expressed above are my own and are not necessarily those of
Siemens RTL, for whom I consult.