herndon@sctc.com (William R. Herndon) (10/24/90)
I am about to order my NeXTStation, and I have been considering the
alternatives for external disk strorage.
I first thought that, since the NeXT machine has that nice SCSI-2
port, putting on a generic already enclosed SCSI drive ( probably
from a third party Mac vendor ) would be a good idea. However, all
of the vendors that I have contacted have said, flat out, that their
drives are NOT compatible because I wouldn't have the correct device
drivers. Now, perhaps I'm missing something, but the NeXT is essentially
a UNIX/MACH system with a set of drivers with multiple entry points.
I assume that one of those drivers is for SCSI disks, and that provided
one has a correct /etc/disktab entry, everything should be cool.
Formatting and partioning programs exist on the NeXT, yes? The internal
disk runs off the SCSI-2 bus, correct? What am I missing?
Oh well, option two was to purchase a bare SCSI drive, a cabinet, and
do the work of connecting the drive, setting jumpers, etc, myself,
hoping to do the job right. However, since I've never done work like
this, I'm afraid I'll screw it up somehow.
Option three, ( perhaps the most attractive ), is to go with a vendor
like Pacific Microelectronics, who is explicitly supporting NeXT.
They seem to have an attractive deal going on right now. They'll give
you their full height, dual enclosure cabinet with a Maxtor 340 Mbyte
( the LXT-340 I think ) and the necessary cables for approx. $1800, and
they'll guarantee the compatibility of the drive and the connection.
Now this seems like a good deal, not as cheap as either of the other
alternatives, but for guaranteed compatibility ( and attractive styling
to boot )... Is it a good deal? Comments?
BTW: Pacific Mic. also has a package on thier half height enclosure:
Enclosure, 2.8 floppy ( reads/writes Mac, PC, NeXT disks ), software
for the floppy, cables, and a Quantum 200 Mbyte drive, for $1695.
Thanks in advance. Any and all help is appreciated.
- Max
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R. Herndon
Secure Computing Technology Corp. The opinions expressed are
mine, ALL MINE! HEH, HEH,
herndon@sctc.com HEH, HEH!!!
(612) 482-7431 tjb@unhd.UNH.EDU (Thomas J. Baker) (10/29/90)
In article <1990Oct23.204924.22812@sctc.com>, herndon@sctc.com (William R. Herndon) writes: |> |> |> Option three, ( perhaps the most attractive ), is to go with a vendor |> like Pacific Microelectronics, who is explicitly supporting NeXT. |> They seem to have an attractive deal going on right now. They'll give |> you their full height, dual enclosure cabinet with a Maxtor 340 Mbyte |> ( the LXT-340 I think ) and the necessary cables for approx. $1800, and |> they'll guarantee the compatibility of the drive and the connection. |> Now this seems like a good deal, not as cheap as either of the other |> alternatives, but for guaranteed compatibility ( and attractive styling |> to boot )... Is it a good deal? Comments? |> |> BTW: Pacific Mic. also has a package on thier half height enclosure: |> Enclosure, 2.8 floppy ( reads/writes Mac, PC, NeXT disks ), software |> for the floppy, cables, and a Quantum 200 Mbyte drive, for $1695. |> |> Thanks in advance. Any and all help is appreciated. |> |> |> - Max |> |> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |> William R. Herndon |> Secure Computing Technology Corp. The opinions expressed are |> mine, ALL MINE! HEH, HEH, |> herndon@sctc.com HEH, HEH!!! |> (612) 482-7431 Could this enclosure be used to house a floptical drive too? Do the stations have support for flopticals? Thanks tjb ____________________________________________________________________________ | Thomas J. Baker INTERNET: tjb@unhd.unh.edu | | Computing and Information Services USENET: uunet!unhd!tjb | | Kingsbury Hall, University of New Hampshire BITNET: T_BAKER@UNHH.BITNET | | Durham, NH 03824 Voice: (603) 862-4490 | | | | "But I'm well read and I've heard it said | | a hundred times, maybe less, maybe more..." | |__________________________________________________________________________|