Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!emory!utkcs2!ornl.gov!wnn
From: wnn@ornl.gov (Wolfgang N. Naegeli)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Serial HD -> SCSI HD
Message-ID: <1990Oct23.150611.5794@cs.utk.edu>
Date: 23 Oct 90 15:06:11 GMT
References: <1990Oct23.015930.19587@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@cs.utk.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Tennessee, Knoxville - CS Department
Lines: 32

In article <1990Oct23.015930.19587@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> 
sbulmahn@yoyodyne.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Dr Thrasher) writes:
> I have a mac serial HD20 drive, and it has been suggested that I get it 
upgraded
> to SCSI.  There is a board called the WSI made by PCPC that replaces the
> logic board in the HD20 and is supposed to make it into SCSI.  Has anyone
> done this before?  If so, does that make the drive into a true SCSI 
devive,
> or does it just make it "interface" to the SCSI port?

I have seen and worked with several of these converted HD20s. My 
experience has been mostly negative. The service technicians told me they 
had a variety of difficulties during installation, with some of the drives 
not working at all, and one or two even getting damaged in the process, 
apparently by faulty PCPC components.  The converted drives are much 
faster than before, but the drive's rather slow inherent access time can't 
be changed. It's the data transfer rate that gets improved.  

Unfortunately, most of these drives have not been very reliable, developing
disk errors that required frequent reformatting, occasionally 
irrecoverable data loss.
After reinitialization, the drive diagnostics show no media faults or 
other problems, but in a matter of days or weeks they can get corrupted again.   With hard disk price down as low as they are now, I don't think it's worth investing any more money into a serial HD20.

Get a new SCSI drive (40Meg minimum) and use the old one for infrequently 
used files or as a backup device in its reliable serial mode.

Wolfgang N. Naegeli
President, MacClique--East Tennessee Macintosh Users Group
Internet: wnn@ornl.gov    Bitnet: wnn@ornlstc
Phone: 615-574-6143       Fax: 615-574-6141
QuickMail (QM-QM): Wolfgang Naegeli @ 615-574-4510