Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!elroy!peregrine!zardoz!dhw68k!felix!kehr
From: kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: MAC 40-80MB HARD DRIVE RECOMMENDATIONS????
Message-ID: <93537@felix.UUCP>
Date: 25 Apr 89 13:43:14 GMT
References: <82800CXP120@PSUVM> <23486@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: daemon@felix.UUCP
Reply-To: kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA
Lines: 37

In article <23486@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> lauac@mead.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) writes:
 
<Contact each company that you're looking at and ask them who makes the
<internal drive mechanisms.  If the drive mechanism is Quantum or CDC,
<buy the drive.  If the mechanism is Seagate, snort a bit and hang up.
<
<I have extolled the virtues of Control Data and Quantum before, and
<I'll do it again.  I've given (and sometimes passed along) advice to
<dozens to buy either brand, and NO ONE has complained to me yet.  I
<would be surprised if you were the first.
 
There is an interesting discussion of the Quantum ProDrive 80S in the
25 April MacWEEK (MacInTouch column). They've identified these venders
as using the ProDrive:  FWB PocketHammer80, Microtech Nova 80,
Ruby Systems' StarDrive 80DX and Apple's Internal 80SC for the SE.

Interestingly, there were differences in performance caused by the
installer software, which has to choose the best set of trade-offs.
"The surprise was an outstanding performance turned in by Apple's
disk in our standard benchmark test, duplicating a large file from the
Finder. In this test, formatting with Apple's software cut the dupli-
cation time by 25 percent over third-party installer software to 
match the speed of our CDC Wren. Other tests failed to show the same
gains for the Apple software, so it appears that Apple has optimized
its disk driver for the Finder without affecting performance elsewhere."

While they felt that Apple's HD SC Setup 2.0, FWB's PocketInstall,
Ruby Systems' StarDisk and Microtech's Format have the essentials right,
they faulted Apple and Microtech for calculating the interleave factor
automatically without giving the user the option to override. (creates
performance problems if you want to format on an SE/30 and move to
an older machine)

They mentioned that these drives format to more than 80 Mbytes and 
pointed out that the Quantum is quieter than the average Mac disk.

Shirley Kehr