Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.programmer:7686 comp.periphs:1940 comp.sys.mac:35056 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.periphs,comp.sys.mac Subject: Cheap Hard Drive Boxes? Message-ID: <8081@hoptoad.uucp> Date: 20 Jul 89 21:40:50 GMT Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco Lines: 113 I was looking over a message from last December on comp.sys.mac, about how to put together your own 60 Meg SCSI drive for under $600. The ingredients were a Seagate ST277N, a Tulin Apple Hive, and a SCSI cable. Pretty simple. However, Tulin appears to have gone out of business; at least, their number has been disconnected. I was wondering if someone could point me to a good replacement in the same price range. Here's the description from the article, which was written by Stan Armstrong : "The Apple Hive is a complete under the Mac sized box with a 30 Watt power supply, decently quiet fan (quieter than the drive), internal cables, 2 SCSI connectors, a filtered AC connector, an external SCSI address switch, two front panel LED's (for power on and drive selected), and a front panel power switch. The box is sturdy and nicely finished." The price given in quantity 1 from Tulin was $119. Just for reference, I may as well post the entire message: >From: Stan Armstrong Subject: DIY 60 meg Mac scsi recipe. Here is a recipe for a 62.3 meg Mac SCSI hard disk costing less than $600. I have built this drive, and I'm very happy with it. It is easy to assemble and performs as advertised. The inspiration for the project was the series of articles "Macintosh SCSI Drive Secrets Revealed" in the Sep.-Oct Computer Shoppers. Those articles detail many other options, but since many people will no longer be able to get these magazines, and since not all the information was included in them, here is one configuration that will work. Ingredients: Seagate ST277N SCSI HD $450.00 Tulin Apple Hive $119.00 Mac to SCSI cable $10 00 Power Cord $4.00 Apple HD SC Installer Free -------------- Total $583.00 Because I'm in Canada, shipping charges are different, and I can't provide that information for U.S. Customer. Procedure: You may order the above items from the sources listed below. The Apple Hive is a complete under the Mac sized box with a 30 Watt power supply, decently quiet fan (quieter than the drive), internal cables, 2 SCSI connectors, a filtered AC connector, an external SCSI address switch, two front panel LED's (for power on and drive selected), and a front panel power switch. The box is sturdy and nicely finished. Unpack the ST277N, open the Apple Hive box with a phillips screwdriver, mount the drive in the box with the screws provided (small slot head), and attach the internal cables as indicated by the instructions. If you want to use the drive select LED, you will have to solder two wires to the HD board where on-board LED is (I removed that LED first). If you are not comfortable with doing that, skip that step and do without the activity light. The drive makes enough sound changing tracks so that you can usually tell if it is active. Now close the box, connect it to the mac with the SCSI cable you ordered, and to 120V AC with the power cord. Turn it on, and you are ready to format it and install the driver. The Apple HD SC Installer is part of Apples system software release 6.02. You will need to modify it slightly using Resedit to get it to recognize the ST277N. Using Resedit, open the Installer and open CODE resource "%A5init". Search for and replace "ST250N" with ST277N". Close the file, exit Resedit, and run the Installer. When you have finished, the finder should mount your hard disk. If it does not, you may need to turn the drive and the Mac on and off a couple of times. You might have to even repeat the formatting. (If someone can explain why this is necessary I would appreciate it. I had a different drive on the drive to begin with, which may have caused the hitch, but I don't know why.) Once the drive is mounted, open the installer again, select "Partition", remove the existing 40 meg partition, and install a maximum sized Macintosh volume partition. Exit. You now have a 62.3 meg Macintosh SCSI drive for about $600. For the curious, this is a moderate speed drive. Its rated and measured average access time is 40ms. It is faster than both th FX- 20 and the Photon 30 we have at work. It is faster than the same drive formatted with SF&I software. I used SCSI evaluator for the comparisons. The drive's average read time is about 1800 Kbits/sec and its average write time is 1200Kbits/sec over a good range of block transfers using a Mac Plus. I am very happy with all the sources I used for this equipment, but you may find others more convenient. The relevant sources are as follows: Seagate ST277N SCSI hard drive from: Hard Drives Intl. 1208 E. Broadway Rd. #110 Tempe Az 85282 (800) 234-DISK Tech (602) 967-3133 Apple Hive Box from: Tulin Corp. 2392 Qume Dr. San Jose, CA. 95131 (408) 942-9025 Seagate Tech (800) 468-3472. -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com "Those Mayas were sacrificing not only pagan children, but baptized Christian children, for crying out loud! And they were carrying out those sacrifices, those barbarities, with great savagery, without giving the victims the benefit of the humane types of death that the European Church accorded even to heretics and witches during that century, such as burning at the stake." -- Matthew Rosenblatt, rec.arts.books