Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!wugate!uunet!nuchat!seven From: seven@nuchat.UUCP (David Paulsen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm Subject: Re: More hard disk madness (was Re: CLEAR THINGS) Message-ID: <15507@nuchat.UUCP> Date: 11 Oct 89 04:41:58 GMT References: <15457@nuchat.UUCP> <10046@cbnews.ATT.COM> Reply-To: seven@nuchat.UUCP (David Paulsen) Organization: Crazy Dave's Computer Emporium, Houston Lines: 79 In article <10046@cbnews.ATT.COM> ewm@cbnews.ATT.COM (edward.w.mcfarland,54723,mv,30-2 W3,508 960 6202) writes: >In article <15457@nuchat.UUCP> seven@nuchat.UUCP (David Paulsen) writes: > >>I think the 64 can make good use of a hard disk, even if it was >>interfaced through the serial port. > >...what about cannibalizing a 1541 drive to use as a controller for commonly >available pc harddrives? What would be involved in hacking an interface board >together so one could substitute a hard drive in place of the floppy drive? >Is this harder to do than it seems? I wouldn't mind cannibalizing my 1541 >to gain a hard drive. Neither would I. But alas.. I'm not a hardware type, but I don't think it's possible to swap out the floppy drive for a hard drive and make it work. Even radical rewriting of the 1541 operating system wouldn't provide the hard drive with the signals it needs. However, perhaps the 1541's RAM could be patched into.. an external hard disk would read/write sectors to the 1541's buffers directly, for transmission over the CBM serial bus. By sending a special "read hard disk buffer" (U5: ?) command you could access data the same way you would by direct-disk access on a 1541. To make things easier, an additional 3K of ram -- 3072 bytes -- can be added to the 1541 memory map to allow for extra buffers and programming space. (This I read in the _Transactor_ a couple of years ago.. anyone try it?) While I think this could work, and in fact I'm all for a 1541/20MB hard drive combo, I'm still partial to the 1764 REU modification scheme.. programming on the 64 side would be soooo much easier. Not to mention the near-instantaneous speed that could be attained. >What about cannibalizing a 1581? Is the hardware there any more conducive? >I'd bet this could be done for less than the $700+ that Xetec charges. The same basic impediments exist for the 1581.. perhaps more, since there are dozens of books that address 1541 hacking and almost nothing for the 1581. In any case, I KNOW we can beat the $700+ barrier using baling wire and coat hangars. And now, I zip off on a tangent... Re: external hard drives in general Why so expensive? I always bought the party line, that the external power supply, case and controller card drove the price up.. but recently I've been reading the _Computer Shopper_ and noting the prices I see.. at the mail-order level everything appears to be available for dirt cheap. Power supplies for $29. External hard drive cases, $49. Controllers (IBM-XT compatible): $69. Rebuilt 5MB Tandon harddrive, $75. We're talking under $225 in parts.. and I'm randomly thumbing thru this magazine, typing the first prices I see! I realize this is hardly a realistic approach, but as an experiment it's illuminating; if you assume the (conservative) price of $700 for the Xetec unit, that's a 315% markup. Quite the racket, wouldn't you say? I also realize that the Xetec drive systems represent "years of research", and address the average Commodore owner's desires: fast loads, ease of use, compatibility. But the price is clearly too high.. or else we'd ALL have the damn things sitting next to our 1541s! Where's the "Xetec Bare Bones 1000, the Hard Drive For The Rest Of Us" ..retail $399? Am I totally naive here? >----------------------------------------- > Ed McFarland ewm@mvusa.att.com | >----------------------------------------- David -- David Paulsen ..uunet!nuchat!seven ||| The Curiosity Shop BBS, 713/488-7836 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The spirit is free / Where the wild things roam Next to the sea / The electric ocean [The Cult]