Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ames.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!wjh12!talcott!harvard!seismo!hao!ames!barry From: barry@ames.UUCP (Kenn Barry) Newsgroups: net.micro.apple Subject: Hard disk for $695.00? (SUMMARY OF RESPONSES) Message-ID: <716@ames.UUCP> Date: Wed, 19-Dec-84 13:15:13 EST Article-I.D.: ames.716 Posted: Wed Dec 19 13:15:13 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 21-Dec-84 01:39:01 EST Distribution: net Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA Lines: 87 [] This is a summary of the information I received about the Sider hard disk for the Apple. My thanks to all who responded to my query. My personal decision is to wait a while before purchasing one of these units, both because $695.00, though a very attractive price, is a lot of money, and because the unit has not been around long enough for any information on its long-term reliability to be available, yet. ************************************************************************** > When I saw the ad I immediately noticed two key item of information > were missing and called the company. The person I spoke to was amazed that > they had been omitted from the ad's copy and supplied them, to wit: > > Average seek time: 95ms. > Transfer rate: 5 mbits/sec. > > My understanding is that the low price was made possible by using a > 5 1/4 inch winchester with "small footprint" technology. If you look through > Byte Magazine, you'll notice a few new 10mbyte drives for the IBM PC in > the same price range and using the same new technology. ------------------ > I was concerned also and I called the manufacturer. The are in > business about 2 months. Have sold 250 of them. It is a miniscribe > drive and a Xebec (sp?) controller. > It is not a special limited price and will be their standard price. > Therefore my logic is- since I can't readily afford it now, > wait till it's out there and there's some feedback on it. ------------------ > I have purchased one of the Sider units. It arrived two days ago. > Except for formatting the disk and setting up files, I have not had > a real chance to use it. It did arrive in good shape, and the diagnostic > program indicates that there were no bad sectors. > > Installation was fairly straight forward, you connect mount a cable and > plug attachment to the back of the apple, and attach the other end of > of the cable to the controller board. Then you attach a second cable > from the outside of the apple to the drive. You can daisy-chain up to > 2 drives together, but if you do not use a second drive, you need to > attach a null plug to the other I/O port. The instructions are > complete, but could use more illustrations. > > You can then configure up to four operating systems, DOS 3.3, > Apple PASCAL (1.1 or 1.2), PRODOS and one of two flavors of CPM. A minor > flaw is that each operating system will use about 100k even if you don't > actually use it. Also each operating system has its own boundary on the > disk and these cannot be changed without reformatting. > > The disk is fairly quiet, allthough the rotating drive does make a > humming noise similar to a small fan. It accesses data quietly (no > clatter), and as far as I can tell so far, is reasonably fast, (but I > have not really had time to test this). > > The literature does not actually state who the drive manufacturer is, > but one of the utilities has a xybek (sp?) copyright, so that is > a good guess. > > A word of caution, no real information is given on the internals of > the DOS's used, so if you have a card that uses a patched DOS, it > might not be simple to patch into FCP's DOS. I have not had time to > explore this further.... > > Overall, I am pleased with the quality of the unit I was shipped. I > found only one documentation bug (I setting up pascal) and this was > obvious and easy to work arround. If I am still happy after a month > or so of use, then I might buy a second drive. ---------------- I, also, called the company, and was told that their disk, though compatable with both the Apple ][+ and ][e, is not compatable with the old Apple ][. My machine is a ][, though I have put Applesoft on the motherboard, making it essentially a ][+. They told me that, if their disk would not work on my machine, I could return it within 15 days for a full refund. My thanks, also, to T.J. Jardine, who posted a separate message about the Sider disk he/she recently acquired. I would also appreciate it if any/all owners of the Sider would post a note if they have any problems with their units in the future. Again, my thanks to all. - From the Crow's Nest - Kenn Barry NASA-Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USENET: {ihnp4,vortex,dual,hao,menlo70,hplabs}!ames!barry SOURCE: ST7891