GS Question #5: Hard Drives

[gachenb@eis.calstate.edu (Greg R. Achenbach)]

I just bought a ROM 1 GS (see previous post) and want to put a hard
drive on it.  I have never had a hard drive before, so am fairly
ignorant.
 
What options are open to me?  All the info I see is talking SCSI.  Is
that it?  Are there different kinds of SCSI?  What about IDE, ESDI,
MFM, other?
 
If I go with SCSI (or if that is my only choice), what are the pros
and cons of the Apple High-Speed SCSI card as opposed to the RAMFast
SCSI card?
 
If I go RAMFast, why would I want the 1 meg vs. the 256k?
 
What about removable media?  Pros and cons of cartridge vs.
floptical?
 
How many megs do I need?  What is too cramped?  What is ridiculously
spacious?
 
What about mounting an internal in a case?  I've seen internal Mac
SCSI's fairly cheap.  Is building your own cost effective compared to
buying an external?  What is involved?  Is it do-able by a basically
intelligent person who knows which end of a soldering iron to use?
 
What is a good price?
 
What can go wrong on a hard drive and how do I recognize it?  How do
I avoid getting "burned" if I buy a used one?
 
When I buy one, what should come with it to make it usable?  Is the
drive, cable, and (possibly) terminator all I need?
 
Anybody have one for sale?  Price?
 
Thanks in advance.

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Greg Achenbach             gachenb@eis.calstate.edu
Los Angeles County Outdoor Science School

"Society is like a stew.  If you don't keep it stirred up, you get a lot of
scum on top."  Edward Abbey