rlong@phonon.eng.ohio-state.edu (Prof. Ronald Long) (11/19/89)
Here is some info I have found about Quantum drives.
Quantum Pro Drive Series 42, 84, and 105 MB drives
are manufactured by Matsushita Kotobuki Electronic
Industries, "Quantum's Japanese manufacturing partner."
A comment on warranties. Beware that there may be
differences. The basic warranty in all cases is from
the manufacturer (Quantum) but is serviced through the
dealer. Club Mac (mentioned below) is probably just
a dealer (store). The other two - La Cie and GCC -
are more like manufacturers and maybe will stand behind
"their product." I take this to mean that although they
will try to collect from Quantum, in the end they will
have to cough up if Quantum won't. I hope this isn't
just wishful thinking.
Three places to buy the 105 internal drive are listed
below. All include drive, bracket, and cable.
1. Club Mac
Where: Mac Week ads
Contact: Mike Anderson at 714-768-1490.
Price: $709
Warranty: Two Years
Software: Unimac Storeware ("a $29.95 value")
(Has anyone heard of this formatting software?)
2. La Cie
Where: Ads in Mac User. review in MacWorld May 89.
Contact: 800-999-0143. They only sell direct.
Price: $999 (cash - more for charge)
Warranty: Five Year
Software: "Silverlining" - formatter; "silverserver"
- disk sharing; DS-Backup.
3. GCC Technologies
Where: Dealers or direct. Slick catalog available.
Contact: 800-422-7777
Price: $1149 (I found one dealer at $1034)
Warranty: Two Years
Software: SUM II, Ultraware including DiskManager,
GCC Partitions and QuickSpool. 3 MB of public domain too.
Misc: Their catalog says they do a lot of testing of the
drives they receive. If true this may be the crucial factor.
4. Quantum also manufactures in Milpitas, CA 3.5 inch
drives of 120, 168, and 210 MB. They refer to these as
Quantum's fifth generation of 3.5 drives. I assume that
the smaller drives are the fourth generation. But
although they have lots of literature on these drives I
do not think they are in production yet.
5. The Silverlining formatting software is available
separately from La Cie for $69,95.
-=-
Ronald K. Long, Ph.D.
Ohio State Univ EE Dept., 2015 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 43210
rlong@phonon.eng.ohio-state.edu