herndon@sctc.com (William R. Herndon) (10/25/90)
I didn't get any response the first time I posted this so I'll try
again under another heading.
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 large set of drivers already on board.
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 smithw@hamblin.math.byu.edu (Wild Willy) (10/25/90)
In 1990Oct25.134450.4444@sctc.com herndon@sctc.com (William R. Herndon)
writes:
I didn't get any response the first time I posted this so I'll try
again under another heading.
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.
This is simply false. If you can get together a proper disktab, you can
plug in most any standard SCSI drive (Maxtor, WREN, Hitatchi,....)
You will however need the equivalent of "Buildisk" if you want to use
this hypothetical drive as your boot/NeXTstep disk.
Formatting and partioning programs exist on the NeXT, yes? The internal
disk runs off the SCSI-2 bus, correct? What am I missing?
This is half right. In the present incarnation, no real (low level)
formatting program exists in the bundled software. But, you can always
do that on your local 3/60 or maybe Mac or you can buy TheFormatter
from rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald Antony) for a nominal price I believe.
Generally though, you don't need to do a low level format to use the
drive. It will come from the factory with 512byte or 1024byte sectors
as a rule and the NeXT will work fine with either. (1024byte is best).
Many disk resellers can offer this as an option I believe.
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.
A good way to learn about Winchester SCSI drives maybe, but not necessary.
APS sells external versions of most popular NeXT drives at reasonable
prices. Of course they won't tell you that they work on a NeXT perhaps.
They do.
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?
Depends on you. I'm more into saving money than styling issues. The
CubeRoute also sells drives "guaranteed to work" on the NeXT
1-800-cube-rte.
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.
You asked for it. But remember, not many folks have *actually* done any
of this to a *real* NeXTstation. Personally, I'm just generalizing from
my experience with the cube. More reliable information will be
available shortly I believe.
- Max
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
William R. Herndon
Secure Computing Technology Corp.
herndon@sctc.com
(612) 482-7431
-Bill-
--
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