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From: moore@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU (Andrew M. Moore)
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.micro.apple
Subject: Re: Sider disc drive
Message-ID: <2321@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 18-Jun-86 22:16:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.2321
Posted: Wed Jun 18 22:16:40 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Jun-86 09:47:30 EDT
References: <2618@columbia.UUCP>
Reply-To: moore@mit-eddie.UUCP (Andrew M. Moore)
Distribution: net
Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 44
Keywords: Sider disc drive
Xref: watmath net.micro:14867 net.micro.apple:2832



>Has anyone out there had experience with the Sider disc drive...?

   I've owned a Sider for nearly a year now.  Never any problems with it,
except for the time when the controller card got smoked (my own fault).
When I sent the card back, I was told the unit would get "first priority"
and their claim was that any unit averaged 48 hours in-house repair time,
but my unit seemingly received no such treatment.  But you'll get that with
many places.  I'm not too upset about that.

   My sider is one of their older ones -- the newer Siders have revised
power supplies which don't burn out under prolonged usage as the older
ones did (mine has yet to do this fortunately).  The older ones also had
some kind of metal strip which vibrated and made loud noises after prolonged
usage.  I haven't noticed this on mine.  Both of these problems are fixed
in the newer drives though.

   I am pleased with its performance under CP/M, DOS 3.3, and especially
ProDOS.  SUPERFAST under ProDOS.  I don't use Apple Pascal, so I can't
comment on that.

   Perhaps the largest flame I have about First Class Peripherals is that
they want $60 for upgraded installation software!  That's ridiculous!
The CP/M block size under the Sider is 8K, which results in much lost space
when using the CP/M operating system.  The new installation software
lets you have as low as a 2K block size, which is darned good for a hard
drive.  But there's NO WAY they're getting $60 out of me for that, I mean,
I *AM* a customer already aren't I?  Flame....

   Any specific uestions about the Sider, feel free to ask.

>>> TO ANY PRODOS USERS
    I am so impressed with the Sider's speed under ProDOS that I want to
    start using this operating system much more.  I have hardly any
    software for it though.  Can anyone point me in the direction of some
    public domain or unsupported commercial software (or provide me with
    your catalogue)?  I have a II+, not a //e, so must be able to run
    on the II+.

-drew
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