Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!MTUS5.BITNET!JCKASPER From: JCKASPER@MTUS5.BITNET Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: BITNET mail follows Message-ID: <8804280135.aa01119@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA> Date: 25 Apr 88 06:57:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 110 Date: Mon, 25 Apr 88 01:44:25 EST From: "John C. Kasperski (Otherwise known as 'Jc')" Subject: Hard disks revisited - OPTION 5!!! To: Info-Apple@brl.arpa > And also whoever posted the the message about >the Segate st-225 drive thing how do you connect it? and how much does all of >parts cost for it. > > Thanks, > Steve S. Glantz > S4g@psueclb Well, I was the one who posted that "thing" and I do agree I ought to expand on it a little. First though, all of those of you out there that have asked for the hard disk summary I mentioned that I had written up, I posted it to this discussion list some time ago (referred to in above comment). If you did not get this posting let me know and I'll mail you a copy directly. In that summary I listed 4 different ways to go about hooking up a hard disk to an Apple. What I was trying to do was compare the general prices of the different possibilities. In that summary, I also mentioned that I was thinking about chosing option 4... well... I decided not to go this route, but I will go into detail explaining what you would need if you were considering option 4. Option 4. UPDATE: First of all, I found out that the CMS SCSI card WILL work with this setup as well as Apple's card and in fact, it will work even better because it comes with software (I believe), it WILL allow partitioning, and you can get it for only $95 dollars (Quality Computer's ad in A+). BUT... how do you go about hooking the ST225N up once you get it. First of all, you must remember that if you get a ST225N from Hamilton Avnet like I was thinking that's all you are going to get... a ST225N. There is no case, no cables, no power supply... nothing but the drive. You can purchase a case and power supply combo from JDR Microdevices for about $50, BUT that still leaves you with the problem about cables. The CMS SCSI card may come with cable but it will not be the type you want. The CMS cars has a DB-25 pin on the back of it, but the ST225N has a BR-50. Now, this is no real major problem because Apple has a SCSI System cable that WILL do this conversion. The cable number, in case you are interested, is M2556 or at least that's what is printed on all of the SCSI phamplets I picked up at the local Apple dealer. After trying to look up the price of this cable I found that it had been renamed to M0206. BTW: the price of the M0206 was $50. Now once you spent approx. $530 on all this, remember you still got to put it all this together and hope it works, how do you go about daisy chaining a second SCSI device. Well, the CMS card I guess has the ability to daisy chain two devices off of it, 2 DB-25 ports. This will be the easiest way, but you are going to have to spend another $50 on the Apple cable. The drive I believe, can be put in the same case as the first drive. The only other way to daisy chain an additional SCSI device is to attach a Y-cable to the end of Apple's SCSI cable. A Y-BR-50 cable with a female end for Apple's SCSI cable and 2 male ends for the drives. I could not find such a cable and I don't even know if this set up will work. It *should* work, but I was about to fool around and try it out. Someone mentioned something about Shugart drives? What are these? Perhaps they could be another possibility. Could someone explain exactly what these drives are and any place that sells them? I will post any additional information I can find... once I find out what I'm looking for. :) Now that I've given up on option 4, what am I going to do about getting a hard disk? Well... I going to choose *OPTION 5*. Option 5. Buy a CMS SCSI card and hook up a low priced Mac SCSI hard drive. The CMS card, like I mentioned earlier sells for only $95 mail order from Quality Computers (Ad in A+)... it can probably be gotten for less other places though. As far as what drive am I going to get... well Hamilton Avnet sells a nice, LOW PRICED, hard disk system called the "Apple Crate". The Apple Crate is a ST225N (or ST251N or ST277N) in a case, with it's own power supply, fan, and SCSI input and output ports (solves problem with dasiy chaining). These ports are also DB-25 so that all you need is a the standard cable that comes with the drive to hook it up to the CMS SCSI card, NO SPECIAL CABLING NEEDED! This drive is supposed to be used with the Mac's, but since it is a SCSI drive it *should* run fine on the Apple ]['s with a SCSI card. (The reason I say *should* is that I have not actually used one yet.. but I do plan on getting one in the near future.) Speaking of purchasing, Hamilton Avnet will not sell these drive to the end users (you and me), they will only sell them to distributors. Now, as the price... that will depend on what the distributor you go to decides to sell the drive to you for. I have no idea what price they are going to sell the drives for, but I think I'm going to be dissappointed in it. While talking to the regional director of my area at Hamilton Avnet, she leaked out the price that they sell the drives to distributors, actually she was going to sell one to me at that price till she found out that I wasn't a distributor. Anyway... I won't reveal what this price was... but I will say that it was under $450. :) If you are interested in this... your best bet would be to call Hamiton Avnet and get the name of their nearest distributor to you. By the way, let me know what final price you get on these drives... I'm curious how much the mark up is. My net-address is listed at the bottom of this posting. Well, I hope this helps clarify the misconception I arose about the ST225N as being an easy answer to all your problems about hard drives. If I wasn't set on the SCSI aspect of this whole thing, I would probably turn to option 2 or 3 with the MegaBoard. This is an option that's always open... of course getting an Apple 20 meg HD-SC is always an option too. :) BTW: Does anybody know of any other cheap Mac SCSI hard drives? They could probably be used in place of the Apple Crate. Let me know what your comments are... ///////////////////////////////////// | John C. Kasperski, "Jc" Bitnet: JCKASPER @ MTUS5 | | | | Michigan Technological University | | | | Disclaimer: Yes, I know I end a lot of my sentences with '...' | | It's my own personal trademark... Copyrighted 1988. | /////////////////////////////////////