Re: Hard Drives for Apple IIGS

[giovin@medr3.ecs.umass.edu (Rocky J Giovinazzo)]

In article <6936@news.duke.edu> you write:
>I have an Apple IIGS with 1.25M of memory and I am looking at
>purchasing a hard drive, although I have a couple of questions...
>
>	o  It looks like I'm going to order this by mail-order, what
>	   companies/brands can anyone recommend?  (I'm looking at
>	   40MB Hard Drives)
>
>	o  What other things will I need beside the hard drive itself?
>	   (i.e. cards, etc.)
>
>Post responses here or email to sstein@afs.acpub.duke.edu

You can get a GS-specific hard drive (like Vulcan) that requires
no extra card-- just stick the whole thing in your machine.
About 2 years ago, when I bought my drive, I found that Vulcan and
others like this were extremely expensive.  I bought an Apple SCSI 
card (about $120) and an external hard drive.  It takes up
more desk space, but it's much much cheaper.  Plus the external hard
drive I bought is a Quantum which is better (faster) than 
the internals you might find-- and is either #1 or #2 in MacUser
buyer guides (or some Mac magazine).  

I bought my apple SCSI card from Programs Plus (slightly better price 
than Quality Computers, but almost the same at the time) and my
hard drive from Hard Drives International.  The price of the drive
itself completely depends on the size you want.  I bought a 52MB drive,
($300 at the time) but sort of wish I bought the 110MB drive (I think
it was $400-$420). If you order a drive like this, make sure 
you specify that you want an external drive *WITH* a case and power
supply.  They might assume you're putting it in a Mac or something and
don't need that stuff. 

You might also want to consider buying a RAMFast SCSI card instead of
the Apple one.  It's about $180 I think but apparently gives you faster disk
access plus a bunch of other nice features.  With RAMFast you're able
to tell your computer to boot from different partitions (normally 
there is only 1 boot partition).  ... and there's other stuff that I
can't remember.  You should ask someone with a RAMFast to give you
more info.

You can find the phone numbers for Programs Plus and Quality Computers
in Incider/A+ (Quality will try to sell you their Q-drive which you
might to look into also) and Hard Drives International's # is 
in most Mac magazines.  Or... call 1-800-555-1212 and ask for 
their 800 numbers.  I'm pretty sure Programs Plus got rid of their
800 number, so you'll have to call them in New Hampshire normally.

When looking for the best price on your SCSI card, I would also check
TMS Peripherals and Preferred Computing. Other places advertise in 
A+/Incide but the 5 names I've mentioned are all ones I've purchased
things from. 

Rocky Giovinazzo
giovinaz@hks.hks.com