hui@joplin.mpr.ca (Michael Hui) (10/26/89)
Has anyone had any experience with 3.5" winchesters from this manufacturer? I am thinking of buying their 40 Mb model with embedded SCSI controller. The specs look good: voice coil head positioner, 8k byte cache, auto-park on power off, 28 ms access (if my memory serves me right ...) Michael M.Y. Hui 604-293-6011 hui@mprgate.mpr.ca
whiteheada@yvax.byu.edu (10/26/89)
I have two of them in my two SEs. They are quiet, fast, and I have no problems with them since I got them in Mardch 1989. cdn
jwright@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu (Jim Wright) (10/27/89)
In article <1843@eric.mpr.ca> hui@mprgate.mpr.ca (Michael M.Y. Hui) writes: | Has anyone had any experience with 3.5" winchesters from this | manufacturer? I am thinking of buying their 40 Mb model with embedded | SCSI controller. The hard drive in our Mac II recently flaked out. It is a Connor 40meg unit sold by CMS. It replaced the Apple 20meg unit that also died. This was installed by the official Apple dealer in town (before I got here). I was able to get the drive going again by a *VERY* sharp whack to the side. I removed all data files from the drive and loaded it with only executables. I also removed the system folder. This is quite usable with the attached dual SyQuest 45meg cartridges. [Assuming the cartridge drives work -- the morons at MassMicro put the fan on the bottom of the case, to pull hot air down. It often won't work because of overheating. IDIOTS!] The machine is now never shut down. I believe that the problem with the drive is that it is mounted upside down! Thus all the loading on the moving parts is wrong. The structure which holds the drive forces it to be upside down. (I.e. the droid who installed it followed the directions, for better or worse.) Are all Mac II drives installed upside down? Who's bright idea was this? Or am I way off base here? Why is it that every time I look closely at some piece of Mac-related hardware, I get a sick feeling in my stomach? Mediocre performance is one thing, but bad engineering is another. -- Jim Wright jwright@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu (ignore the Reply-To: line)
hui@joplin.mpr.ca (Michael Hui) (10/27/89)
I did read the technical manual rather thoroughly and remember that Connor drives can withstand any orientation, as long as the orientation does not change too quickly. Let me ask you this then: did replacing the original factory supplied drive with the Connor result in any perceived performance improvement?
jwright@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu (Jim Wright) (10/28/89)
In article <1846@eric.mpr.ca> hui@mprgate.mpr.ca (Michael M.Y. Hui) writes: | I did read the technical manual rather thoroughly and remember that | Connor drives can withstand any orientation, as long as the | orientation does not change too quickly. Interesting. All drives I have encountered had three legitimate orientations: flat, side or other side. (Hope you get the idea. :-) This drive has been mounted the same way since day one, so that shouldn't be a problem. Assuming of course that upside down really is OK. | Let me ask you this then: did replacing the original factory supplied | drive with the Connor result in any perceived performance improvement? I don't know. I never saw the factory drive. However, the Connor *seems* to be a fairly nice drive. I had heard good things about them, and was a bit upset that it died. It isn't very old. And it has had no abuse (well none until it died that is). -- Jim Wright jwright@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu (ignore the Reply-To: line)
greg@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Gregory James) (10/28/89)
I think I remember reading that Apple has put a 3.5" Connor hard drive in their Mac Portable, largely because it is virtually bullet- and shock- proof (Don't try this at home kids). Even though Apple hard drives are horrendously overpriced, I can't fault their quality. On the issue of Jasmine drives, I have two things against the company. First, they have these really glossy two page ads for hard drives that are (almost) the same as everybody else's (same Quantum HDU). The money for these ads has to come from somewhere ... Second, they have an exclusive Canadian dealership plan. This means that they grant exclusive marketing rights for Jasmine drives to certain Canadian dealers, who take this as a carte blanche to print money. Apparently they charge close to $1000(Can) [$850US] for a 20MB drive. Why the Hell would I buy there stuff when I can get a 80MB drive shipped over the border for the same money?! I hate exclusive dealerships, and I try to avoid supporting companies that practice it (Apple Canada is a necessary, though stupid, evil. Oh, the stories I can tell about Apple Canada ...) Samurai Cat greg@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
tag@symbas.UUCP (Arne Gisvold) (10/30/89)
In article <1843@eric.mpr.ca> hui@mprgate.mpr.ca (Michael M.Y. Hui) writes: >Has anyone had any experience with 3.5" winchesters from this >manufacturer? I am thinking of buying their 40 Mb model with embedded >SCSI controller. I had the opportunity to look inside a Macintosh portable a few days ago - and the harddisk used was a Connor disk. This should indicate that Apple at least find them quite acceptable! They are also very low weight and use very little power as far as i recall. Regards Tor-Arne -- ! Tor-Arne Gisvold - Symbiotic Computer Systems A/S ! adress : Sandgt. 2 , N7001 Trondheim, Norway ! UUCP : ...mcvax!ndosl!symbas.UUCP!tag AppleLink : NOR0038 ! phone: +47-7-515544 FAX : +47-7-532027 BIX : tgisvold
hui@joplin.mpr.ca (Michael Hui) (11/01/89)
The Canadian division of Hamilton/Avnet Computer sells the Connor CP340 40 Mbyte SCSI drive for $621 Cdn., FST included, PST not included. Their CP3104 at 100 Mbyte goes for $1100. If anyone has seen these going for any less, please post. If not, I most likely will go for one of them. Thanks for all the valuable feed back so far, especially the Mac Portable tip.