Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!mtuxo!mtgzz!drutx!druwy!dlm
From: dlm@druwy.ATT.COM (Dan Moore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: MORE HARD DRIVE DISCUSSION
Message-ID: <4035@druwy.ATT.COM>
Date: 16 May 89 16:12:21 GMT
References: <8905152003.AA28126@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: AT&T, Denver, CO
Lines: 46

in article <8905152003.AA28126@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>,
MAXG@SUVM.BITNET (Gerry Greenberg) says:
> going to throw a twist into my original question.  I am really
> interested in getting a hard drive to use with a mac emulator.  Right
> now I have the MagicSac and am considering moving up to Spectre.  The
> thing is, if I build one of these BMS 200 + SCSI drive systems, will it
> work with the Magic Sac and/or Spectre128.  I have seen Dave Small's
> recent gadgets newsletter where he says Spectre now works with Seagate
> 277N and 296N SCSI drives, but what about with the MagicSac?  Does
> anyone out there have any experience with a MagicSac running off a SCSI
> hard drive system?

	The Magic Sac will "sorta" work with Seagate 277N and 296N hard
disks.  Most of the time you will have no problems but occasionally you
will get "unable to write file skip or continue" messages.  This happens
most often when copying large files to/from the hard disk when lots of
SCSI i/o is occuring.  Spectre version 1.9 adds the "slow SCSI" option
which fixes this problem. 

> And not necessarily with a Seagate...what about
> Micropolis? or Miniscribe?

	I've only heard of problems with integral SCSI drives and then
only with Seagates.  I've never seen any problems with seperate
controller and drive setups, in fact Dave uses an Adaptec 4070 RLL
controller with a 277R.

> Also, what about these drives
> with the Spectre? Anyone have BMS 200 + SCSI (other than Seagates, which
> I've read alrady work) on the Spectre?

	Fortunately all the ST hard disk interfaces are hardware and
software compatible.  The differences are features (pass thrus, clocks,
etc.) and quality (some of the ST interfaces are real junk).  The only
drive interface that is incompatible with the Magic Sac and the Spectre
is the Haba drive.  Since they haven't been sold in 3 or 4 years very
few people care.


				Dan Moore
				AT&T Bell Labs
				Denver
				dlm@druwy.ATT.COM