Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!pur-ee!pur-phy!tippy!emerrill
From: emerrill@tippy.uucp
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Hard drive Qs galore.
Message-ID: <145300017@tippy>
Date: 11 Nov 89 17:28:00 GMT
References: <113300139@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Lines: 53
Nf-ID: #R:uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:113300139:tippy:145300017:000:2981
Nf-From: tippy.uucp!emerrill    Nov 11 12:28:00 1989


/* Written  3:36 pm  Nov  3, 1989 by krb20699@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu in tippy:apple */
>     Ok, I need some advice (bear with me.)  I've got a GS, if it helps:
>     I'm planning on getting a hard drive, and I'm pretty set on an AE Vulcan
>40meg at about $619+S&H mail-order.  What I need to know is if going SCSI,
>even though you abondon the internal idea, would be faster or better in
>another way.

I have a Vulcan 40 meg that I've had for a month now.  I ordered it the second
week in August from Quality Computers for $605 + $20 S&H (I think...).  I also
placed inquiries at other places, asking them to call when the 40 meg was in
stock--Quality Computers was the first one to call, but the others (Preferred
Computers and Roger Coats) called within a week after hearing from Quality
Computers.  Overall, I wasn't impressed with QC--the first time I called,
they told me that they had received shipments of the 40 meg for the IIgs and
should get enough to fill the backorders plus more within the week (3rd week
of August).  When I called two weeks later to inquire about the progress, I was

informed that they had never even received _ANY_ shipments of the 40 meg--just
the 100 and the 20 meg units.  Also, depending upon the time of day I called, I
was quoted different prices.  In a span of two days, I called three times, with
prices ranging from $605 to $620.  I don't think this shows much
professionalism.

>Does anyone know if AE's putting System 5.0.2 on their Vulcans?  Also,
>is anyone familiar with the advertised (I believe) optional cacheing feature
>for Vulcans?  One last question (sorry :-) does AE send their hard disks
>optimized?  What I mean is, should I use low level formatting when I get
>the thing to optimize it to my machine, and replant Sys 5.0.? back onto it?

Yes, currently the Vulcans for the IIgs ship with 5.0.2.  From what I
understand from the AE reps on GEnie, the optional caching feature is still
vaporware.  They have prototypes, but it will be a few months before it becomes
a real product.  The 100 meg already comes with some kind of internal caching.

I believe the interleave is the optimum for the "standard" setup (i.e. w/o
Transwarp).  I ran DiskTimer on my disk and got better results than the times
listed for other drives, so I decided not to mess with low level formatting.

The drive comes with a Vulcan CDA (IIgs) that lets you park the heads, select
the boot partition, and write protect partitions.

I'm satisfied with my Vulcan, but I wish I had the $$ to go with the 100 meg...
:-)

>InterNet:        krb20699@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu        |    Ken Brownfield

  _________________________________________________________
 |                                                         |
 |  Eric Merrill  tippy!emerrill@newton.physics.purdue.edu |
 |                                                         |
 |    My other witty .sig is in the shop being repaired.   |
 |_________________________________________________________|