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From: boreas@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP (The Mad Tickle Monster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Sider hard disk (was Re: Expansion of early model ][e)
Message-ID: <680@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 21-Dec-86 15:31:10 EST
Article-I.D.: bucsb.680
Posted: Sun Dec 21 15:31:10 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Dec-86 21:01:19 EST
References: <8612091140.aa02744@SPARK.BRL.ARPA>
Reply-To: boreas@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP (Michael Justice)
Organization: The Zoo
Lines: 87
Keywords: ackpfthhh

In article <8612091140.aa02744@SPARK.BRL.ARPA> AFRES.940AREFG-SE@GUNTER-ADAM.ARPA writes:
>In response to the message sent     Sun, 07 Dec 86 09:58:15 EST from XC60039%PORTLAND.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
>
>I've been very happy with the Sider 10 meg hard disk from First Class
>Peripherals.  Purchased about 18 months ago for $695 ( as I recall), I
>understand there is currently a 'Christmas Special' price available???
> 
>I use it mostly for CP/M and it has eaten very few files!
>
>Pete Brown
>DDN: AFRES.940AREFG-SE@Gunter-ADAM.ARPA
>-------

I beg to differ.  Mine was given to me as a Christmas present one year,
I think Xmas 1984.  It arrived in mid-January (good shipping time, I must
admit), and I promptly went bonkers trying to get the thing to work.  First
problem -- the disks supplied with it were trashed;  neither of my drives
would read one of them at all.  Likewise for my neighbors' drives (tried
in a total of three Apples, six drives -- 2 ][+ and a //e;  Rana & Apple
drives).  The second, I finally patched up using a disk zap, reading the
"bad" sectors a few dozen times, taking the "best" reads, figuring out
which matched, and copying these onto another disk.  So, I decided that
the disks were indeed bad (:-).  Called them, and got someone who didn't
know what the h*ll she was talking about AT ALL; finally got it straightened
out after about an HOUR on the phone.  They mailed me new disks -- WITHOUT
ANY PROTECTION WHATSOEVER.  One of the two was crumpled beyond hope; the
other was mildly damaged, enough so I didn't want to try it. . . .  I did,
though, on an old, worn-out drive that wouldn't work most of the time, as
this was the disk that I couldn't patch up before.

Finally got the disks working, and found that the controller card they
shipped with it was bad. . . .  And no, it was *not* the kluge'd disks.

Gave up in disgust, mailed the whole thing back to them.  Cost me time,
shipping money (they never reimbursed me for mailing it back, about $15),
lots of annoyance.

The person who gave it to me bought one later, despite all of this, and
was somewhat happier.  He didn't have any of these experiences, but he has
never gotten it to work with AppleWriter, which is mainly what he bought
it for.  He talked to the company, and found that it cannot be used with
AW at present, for some reason or another. . . .  Ended up getting a PC-AT
to use as his main computer.

Anyway.  Basically, beware.  Get specifics on the stuff before you buy it.
Find out whether you can use it for your application, especially. . . .
And -- DON'T BELIEVE THE SIDER PEOPLE!!!!  When I went through all this,
the people they had on customer service didn't know *ANYTHING*.  (Mailing
disks in a manila envelope, not even a sheet of cardboard to protect them?!
Customer service reps that didn't even know the difference between a 5-1/4
inch floppy and a hard disk?!  I'm not kidding or exaggerating, folks!).
I'm surprised they're still in business. . . .

Another thing -- their hard-drive had to be partitioned into separate
pseudo-disks, at least for DOS3.3 (I don't know whether this is true
of other hard drives for the Apple);  it was annoying to me because
1)  you *had* to leave some space for each type -- CP/M, DOS, Pascal, and
something else (maybe ProDOS?) -- even if you weren't going to use it.
2)  the Dos3.3 part had to be sub-partitioned into separate volumes.
Two sizes, one normal-floppy-sized, the other was (I think) triple-size.
Figuring out how to maximize DOS3.3 was a pain. . . .

Note that this is just my experience.  Your mileage may vary.

			-- Michael Justice

P.S. -- Trademarks abound throughout the above.  Approximations follow;
	I'm not about to look them up to be sure.

		Sider : First Class Peripherals.
		Apple (][+|//e) : Apple Computer, Inc.
		Rana : Rana Systems (??) (I meant the disk drive company).
		PC-AT : International Business Machines.

Disclaimer:  I'm not affiliated with any computer companies (yet).  What
	I describe above has been mellowed by the mists of time.  Back
	then, I'm sure I was even more pissed off at them than now. . . .
-- 
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|                      Michael A. Justice                      |
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|          "Space:  The Final Front" -- Ronald Reagan          |
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