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From: joel@gould9.UUCP (Joel West)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: MAC Hard Disks
Message-ID: <718@gould9.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Aug-86 17:04:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: gould9.718
Posted: Tue Aug  5 17:04:49 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Aug-86 06:18:36 EDT
References: <6@uab.CSNET>
Organization: Western Software Technology, Vista, CA
Lines: 46
Summary: Peak Systems, Plus-30

In article <6@uab.CSNET>, baxter@uab.UUCP writes:
> What experience have you had with SCSI hard disks for the Mac +?  Does
> anyone have any information about when Apple will release an SCSI drive?

On Friday 8/1 I bought a Plus-30 hard disk from Peak Systems.
If I understand it correctly, it's a Micropolis spindle, in
a box about the size of an HD-20.

The Peak people say they made a file server (Servant?) before they sold 
the rights to Reach Technology.  Both are located in Austin, TX.

The Plus-30 was one of 2 30mb disks advertised to developers in Outside
Macintosh recently.  It doesn't look too bad, it's a little deeper than
the Mac (a problem on my desk), and was priced reasonably, but not
cheaply (about $200 more than a DataFrame 20, developer prices).

I've loaded up about 12mb, mostly applications, fonts, etc.  I have
MPW C and Pascal, Lightspeed C, MS-Basic, Write, Paint, ResEdit,
etc.  Not much point in putting TML or Megamax on, since they
haven't sent me info yet (!) on their HFS-compatible versions.

The disk is VERY fast, which I guess puts it in the same class as
most SCSI drives, and not with the HD-20.  (I can't speak for
the Hyperdrive, as I've done no side-by-side benchmarks).  It
came pre-formatted and I booted off that system (3.2) & finder
(5.3) and am using it today.

It comes with some software, to park the heads and allow you to
backup a file > 800kb onto floppies.  Other than that, the
software doesn't seem to have much value.

They also sell a 45mb and 65mb.  They automatically park the heads.  
And, they supposedly have a quieter fan.  This fan is REAL noisy, 
as noisy as any IBM AT.

I'm willing to accept that trade-off, though, because almost every
30mb hard disk I've seen is noisy, and if, in order to get a good
deal, I have to settle for average noisiness, that's the breaks.

SUMMARY: It works so far, and I'm almost to the point where I
wonder how I got by without it.
-- 
	Joel West
	Western Software Technology, PO Box 2733, Vista, CA  92083
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