Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!hacgate!janus!noseams.UUCP!harry
From: harry@noseams.UUCP (Harry Felder)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: Any experience with Dennis Dried / Hi-Tech Asset Recovery Inc ?
Message-ID: <01010035.i5yfwk@noseams.UUCP>
Date: 22 Feb 91 01:42:14 GMT
Reply-To: harry@noseams.UUCP
Organization: Seamless Technology
Lines: 42
X-Mailer: uAccess - Mac Release: 1.0.3


In article <11543@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>, ralph@uhheph.phys.hawaii.edu (Ralph Becker-Szendy) writes:
>    
>    Anyone got got or bad experience with Dennis Dried, who runs / owns (?) an
>    outfit known as Hi-Tech Asset Recovery Inc in Santa Barbara ? He does have
>    lovely prices on somewhat out-of-style (but unused) SCSI gear, for example
>    Conner CP340 40MB 3.5" disks for $210, or Seagate 766MB Wren for $850.
>    [etc.]

I first heard of Hi-Tech from their booth at the January Macworld.
The were advertising the ~660 Mbyte Seagate/CDC ST4766 for $1,400 w/o case; JMR
case for $198. Warranty was for only 90 days. Since I have had good
experience w/ CDC disks and their prices were lower than anyone elses, 
I went out to pick one up. If they have lowered their price to $850
for the drive, it is a steal. :-(

They insisted on *cash*. Since they knew I was coming, they put one into a case
for me.  It seemed a bit noisy on the bench, so they put a second drive in; the 
slight noise was that the top of the case hadn't been installed. Software for 
the Mac was Ontrack v2.23, which I haven't used since I use Silverlining. 
[Anyone interested in buying Ontrack for the Mac for $75?] The date
of manufacture for the drive was very late '89, as I remember.

So far, the drive has worked fine for the first 1/3 of the warranty.
When I visited them in mid-January, they had not moved to Santa Barbara.
they looked like they made a business of operating on slim margins;
no fancy offices apparent.  They explained their cash policy as necessary
to make any money on the margins they had.

All in all, you get what you pay for w/ Hi-Tech: cheap disks, w/ no
hand holding and a very short warrantee.  I would deal with them again,
unless my disk quits on the 91st day.

P.S.: They had some Extabytes for the Mac available also at good prices;
you may want to check with them for tape drives as well as disks.




-------
Harry Felder +1 213 829-7126            
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Seamless Technology, 937 19th St., Suite 1, Santa Monica, CA 90403