Finally, I have a Sider HD

["Ernest" <ernestls@home.com>]

I finally found a Sider HD, and it actually works. I found a Xebec SASI card
in a IIe box about a year ago, and then a few weeks ago, I was given several
boxes of Apple II items, and inside one of the boxes was the Sider user
manual and setup disks. Yesterday, I finally received a Sider HD in the mail
at work. I was really excited but I've worked with enough MFM drives to know
that they don't like being banged around much, like being shipped across the
country, so I tried not to get to excited until I had a chance to test it.
Are SASI drives as delicate as MFM drives?

I took it home, plugged everything in, and the drive seemed to be dead. The
red light didn't even come on. So I opened the Sider box, and switched the
power plug (why does it have two, anyway?,) plugged everything back in, and
the drive spun up. I followed the directions in the manual to set it up but
my IIe kept crashing at different points during the setup. So, I drug out a
different IIe, plugged everything in, and the setup worked just like the
manuals said. I guess that my first IIe must have a bad Slot #7.

Now, the IIe boots from the hard drive, and the Sider seems to be just fine.
Yahoo! I've wanted one of these drives ever since I learned of them, when I
found the Xebec card. I haven't installed any programs on the drive yet,
other than the Sider setup software -I still need to setup the Pascal and
CP/M stuff but I'll do that later today.

Overall, this has been a very exciting "new find" week for me. On Monday, I
received an Acorn BBC Master, BBC Master Compact (with expansion disk
drive,) Microvitec Cub (color) monitor, Acorn Electron, and the old style
BBC Data Casette Recorder, and a bunch of software tapes and user manuals
for these computers.

Tuesday, I recieved a bunch of Apple II CP/M software, and setup disks.

Wednesday, I was given two more mystery boxes of Apple II stuff. I haven't
even opened up the boxes yet but they're really heavy, so there may be some
fun things inside (other than just software.)

Thursday, I closed the deal on a trade for an Amstrad CPC 464 system, with
color monitor, books, and a ton of programs on cassette. (I'm hoping to
receive that package by the end of next week.)

Yesterday, I received the Sider drive.

This should be a fun weekend for tinkering around with old computers. What
other hobby can give you so much excitement for so little money? Even
gardening costs a fortune if you want to do it right.

Ernest