Re: Dumb question about Sider drives

["brad" <mrbrad@ll.net>]

it is an mfm drive something like a seagate st506 or some such 20meg i think
is one type (not sure i have a bunch of broke siders too i need to
refurbish)

anyway...i have all the manuals etc and always plan on fixing them....what i
was told by a former xebec/sider tech was that in order to use (whatever mfm
hd the sider has) or replace a mfm hd in a sider case it has to be low level
formated on a pc (prob an old ibm pc) using a xebec hd card mfm type and
drivers...essentially what this does is you low level the format with the
xebec controller on the ibm pc using said format drivers for the pc..then
you can use the sider format utils on top of that..but without the format
using the xebec mfm hd controller and drivers and formated using an ibm pc
format first...it will fail

not sure if this is true but have a xebec hd controller mfm type off ebay
and drivers..and some mfm hds was always gonna try to salvage some have not
got around to it

the only other thing i can think of is a few months ? ago there was some
postings on comp.sys.apple2 or comp.sys.apple2.marketplace on how to build
the terminators needed for the back of sider hds..some one did so and posted
pin outs..i have them someplace but they should be avail on one of those
groups

anyway...i have like 6 or 7 i suspect the hd's are fried..so prob should try
to get around to getting them tweaked and see if what i was told works

brad
former sysop lost gonzo bbs




"Lockar" <lockar@nospam.com> wrote in message
040120041322510609%lockar@nospam.com">news:040120041322510609%lockar@nospam.com...
>
>    Wayne,
>
>      Thanks for the info.  That's what I was thinking, but I wasn't
> sure and didn't want to try it either.  I have the SASI drive card so
> that's not a problem.  I was just wondering why the RamFAST SCSI card
> could use the card, which you answered.
>
>     So what kind of drive is in the unit it's self.  Is it possible to
> replace the drive inside the case at all?
>
>      -Lockar
>
>
>
> In article <36cd6118.0401040836.8925615@posting.google.com>, Wayne
> Stewart <waynes@intergate.ca> wrote:
>
> > Lockar <lockar@nospam.com> wrote
> > > My friend dropped off his GS to me last night.  It had some goodies
> > > with it and one thoses was a Sider drive.  He says that he was using
it
> > > with his RamFAST SCSI card.
> > >
> > >     Can this drive be used with Apple's Fast SCSI card? If so how
would
> > > I go about using it with other SCSI drives?  Would it go at the end of
> > > chain then?
> > >
> > >       -Lockar
> >
> > The Sider is SASI not SCSI. It's very similar to SCSI but not the same.
> > The Ramfast designers took that into account when designing the Ramfast
> > but Apple didn't. Out of curiosity I've tried one on a couple of
> > different SCSI cards but had no luck.
> >
> > Warning: anything that provides term power will toast a Sider drive.
> > I'd rather not talk about that experience.
> >
> > Wayne
>