legler@masig2.masig1.ocean.fsu.edu (David M. Legler) (03/11/91)
I want to put together a hard disk setup for myself. When the price
for an Apple II specific package (40 Meg disk) is $600 or more (for
Apple) and we can get 40Meg drives for $319 from several vendors, it
is silly not to go the route of making your own.
I know I will need the Apple SCSI card (the RAMFast card is more than
I need right now). By the way InCider is talking (not that they are
always correct), there seems to be a potential problem with using hard
disks sold to primarily the Mac market as the Mac pseudo-standard does
not require all the SCSI connections; so I need to know which disk
drives people are using - has anyone found this Mac SCSI standard to
be a problem ?
I would also like a recommendation on what kind of formatting software
to buy - for I would potentially like to have partitions for ProDos, Dos
3.3, and GS/OS.
This would certainly be of interest to lots of folks, especially since
the April 1991 issue of Mac User reviews 32 "budget" hard drives. 40
meg drives are going for about $300 - $400 these days.
Mr. David M. Legler ||(904)644-1159 or 644-4581
Mesoscale Air-Sea Interaction ||Bitnet legler%masig1.ocean.fsu.edu@cunyvm
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Florida State University ||
Tallahassee, FL 32306-3041 || "An Apple II a day, keeps the PC blues away"
bazyar@ernie (Jawaid Bazyar) (03/11/91)
In article <LEGLER.91Mar10221348@masig2.masig1.ocean.fsu.edu> legler@masig2.masig1.ocean.fsu.edu (David M. Legler) writes: > >I want to put together a hard disk setup for myself. When the price >for an Apple II specific package (40 Meg disk) is $600 or more (for >Apple) and we can get 40Meg drives for $319 from several vendors, it >is silly not to go the route of making your own. > >I know I will need the Apple SCSI card (the RAMFast card is more than >I need right now). By the way InCider is talking (not that they are >always correct), there seems to be a potential problem with using hard >disks sold to primarily the Mac market as the Mac pseudo-standard does >not require all the SCSI connections; so I need to know which disk >drives people are using - has anyone found this Mac SCSI standard to >be a problem ? From the way the RamFast manual talks, such problems are only in the cabling. A SCSI disk drive is a SCSI disk drive is a... I'm running a Quantum 40 Meg drive, sold as an internal for a Macintosh (in fact, this exact type of drive is used in SEs, etc). All I had to do was get a standard SCSI cable (with an adapter to go from ribbon cable connector to centronics connector), plug it in, and go. Works like a charm. Re: RamFast- if you happen to buy a fast hard drive (like a Quantum ProDrive), I'd really recommend a RamFast. Boots to the finder (with loads of inits and DAs) in 10 secs. It's just astounding. >I would also like a recommendation on what kind of formatting software >to buy - for I would potentially like to have partitions for ProDos, Dos >3.3, and GS/OS. ProDOS and GS/OS are supported de facto. For DOS 3.3 (really?) you'll need a program from Morgan Davis, the name of which I forget. But you'll want to use the program SCSI Hacker and the Advanced Disk Utilities. >This would certainly be of interest to lots of folks, especially since >the April 1991 issue of Mac User reviews 32 "budget" hard drives. 40 >meg drives are going for about $300 - $400 these days. Gee. I bought my 40 meg drive for $235 (that's right, two hundred and 35) brand new with a 2 year warranty- granted, it didn't come with a case or power supply (I already had one). -- Jawaid Bazyar |"I'm sure K&R have never heard of Mike." Senior/Computer Engineering | bazyar@cs.uiuc.edu |"That's okay. I'm sure Mike's never heard of K&R". Apple II Forever! | (discussion about Orca/C)
gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) (03/12/91)
In article <LEGLER.91Mar10221348@masig2.masig1.ocean.fsu.edu> legler@masig2.masig1.ocean.fsu.edu (David M. Legler) writes: >I know I will need the Apple SCSI card (the RAMFast card is more than >I need right now). By the way InCider is talking (not that they are >always correct), there seems to be a potential problem with using hard >disks sold to primarily the Mac market as the Mac pseudo-standard does >not require all the SCSI connections; so I need to know which disk >drives people are using - has anyone found this Mac SCSI standard to >be a problem ? So far as I can determine, any reputable hard disk manufacturer's products with embedded SCSI interfaces should work fine with Apple's High-Speed (DMA) SCSI Card. Certainly the Syquest and Seagate drives that I have work fine. Most third-party packaged SCSI disks are just some OEM drive manufacturer's drive and embedded interface with a case and power supply added. Cabling is the most difficult part of building your own unit, since there are a variety of 50- and 25-contact connectors in use with SCSI peripherals, some of them rather hard to find in stores. >I would also like a recommendation on what kind of formatting software >to buy - for I would potentially like to have partitions for ProDos, Dos >3.3, and GS/OS. There are several SCSI formatting/partitioning utilities posted for downloading on the various information utilities such as AOL and GENIE. Chinook was supposedly upgrading their excellent utilities (formerly specific to the old non-DMA SCSI card) to work with the DMA SCSI card, but I haven't heard whether or not this has occurred. >This would certainly be of interest to lots of folks, especially since >the April 1991 issue of Mac User reviews 32 "budget" hard drives. 40 >meg drives are going for about $300 - $400 these days. If you have an Apple IIGS, I'd recommend at least 80MB, and/or the Syquest cartridge drive (44MB on-line). A2-Central (or whatever it's called) offers complete disk drive kits including cabling sufficient for a single-drive installation, case and power supply. This is the most convenient route for most do-it-yourselfers.