Re: Macintosh Hard disk 20

[ams@Auspex.COM (Allan Schwartz)]

In article <C1tpy6.Js9@agora.rain.com> george@agora.rain.com (George Rachor) writes:
>
>I rescued this drive from the scrap heap and it does work on a Mac plus.
>
>This doesn't seem to be a true scsi device.  Does anyone out there know
>what type of drive this is.  Is there any possibility that this drive
>could be used on an apple ][?
>-- 

This is the original "serial" HD20 disk drive, which worked with the
Mac 512k (and Mac 512ke), and as you have mentioned, the Mac Plus.  It
plugs into the floppy disk drive port.  This is in hot demand for Mac
512ke owners, because it is the only choice they have for an external
hard disk drive.

On the other hand, Mac Plus owners are currently in fat city -- flooded
by (perceived as too small and cheaply resold) 40 MB drives.
A Mac Plus owner would not want this drive, because it is slow -- 
maybe 30% the speed of a more modern SCSI disk drive.  And it is
larger than most "zero-footprint" cases, and it is a little noisier.

I paid $900 for a HD20 drive in December of 1984.  The list price, as I
recall, was $1200.  I resold one, recently, for $115.

I don't know a thing about apple ][, except that the 800k floppy drives
were compatible, so it is conceivable that the HD20 could be used.
I know that the interface chip (the IWM) is the same.

			-allan
-- 
Allan M. Schwartz              +1 408 492-0900                 ams@auspex.com