From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

Hello,
Any suggestions on a fast (and relatively inexpensive if possible) SCSI hard drive replacement for my GS/ RamFAST rev D? I'm looking for something
faster than the ROMdisk (Ramkeeper) I've been using for booting.

Any brand/mfg./model/vendor you might recommend?

Thanks,
Shawn



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

"S M Trimble" <fate7@removespamswbell.net> wrote:

Hello,
Any suggestions on a fast (and relatively inexpensive if possible) SCSI hard >drive replacement for my GS/ RamFAST rev D? I'm looking for something
faster than the ROMdisk (Ramkeeper) I've been using for booting.

Any brand/mfg./model/vendor you might recommend?

I would suggest the Apple High Speed SCSI card or
maybe the Focus IDE card/drive for the IIGS. The
Focus would be a bit slower than the RamFAST but
the Apple card (in IIGS mode) really is as fast as the
RamFAST. I don't care what folks who have not
used BOTH cards say but that is the truth. I was
foolish enough to buy a RamFAST thinking that it
was some great upgrade from the Apple card but to
my dismay I found that it had problems that the
Apple card didn't and was NOT faster in GS/OS.
First of all, if you have any synthLAB player
(or rather MIDIsynth player that plays synthLAB
files) or MOD player running in the background,
the music would skip anytime the hard drive is
accessed on the RamFAST. This never happens
with the Apple High Speed card.

The RamFAST IS much faster under ProDOS 8
but if you use RamKeeper, I assume you mainly
are interested in GS/OS speed. Get the Apple
card.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2


"Supertimer" <supertimer@aol.com> wrote in message news:20030720143412.06962.00000453@mb-m06.aol.com...

"S M Trimble" <fate7@removespamswbell.net> wrote:

Hello,
Any suggestions on a fast (and relatively inexpensive if possible) SCSI

hard

drive replacement for my GS/ RamFAST rev D? I'm looking for something >faster than the ROMdisk (Ramkeeper) I've been using for booting.

Any brand/mfg./model/vendor you might recommend?

I would suggest the Apple High Speed SCSI card or
maybe the Focus IDE card/drive for the IIGS. The
Focus would be a bit slower than the RamFAST but
the Apple card (in IIGS mode) really is as fast as the
RamFAST. I don't care what folks who have not

Got something against me Timer? I have one MicroDrive
Plug'N'Play hard card left 800 mb IDE faster than a speeding
SCSI, more powerful than an 800k floppy. Look it's not as
expensive as the others either. In the GS, in the IIe, it's 2, 2,
2 drives in one. Hot key bootable to drives 1 thru 9 at startup.
GS/OS installed on partition 1, and ProDOS 2.0.3 on partition
number 2. Price?, well, in the US it's $90 shipped. Outside add
another $15. Not bad eh? I have one in my GS, and I love it.
So have all my other customers, you will too. Thank you.

Bill @ GarberStreet Enterprises };-)
Web Site - http://garberstreet.netfirms.com
Email - willy46pa@comcast.net



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

"Bill Garber" <willy46pa@comcast.net> wrote:

"Supertimer" <supertimer@aol.com> wrote:

I would suggest the Apple High Speed SCSI card or
maybe the Focus IDE card/drive for the IIGS. The
Focus would be a bit slower than the RamFAST but
the Apple card (in IIGS mode) really is as fast as the
RamFAST. I don't care what folks who have not

Got something against me Timer? I have one MicroDrive
Plug'N'Play hard card left 800 mb IDE faster than a speeding
SCSI, more powerful than an 800k floppy.

Joachim Lange's MicroDrive hard card was one piece
of IIGS hardware that I never did get a chance to play
with. That's the only reason I didn't mention it.

If it really is as fast as the other solutions, then I'm
all for recommending it. Like I said, the reason I
didn't mention it was simply because I never used
one.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2


"Supertimer" <supertimer@aol.com> wrote in message news:20030723011510.20330.00000577@mb-m29.aol.com...

"Bill Garber" <willy46pa@comcast.net> wrote:

"Supertimer" <supertimer@aol.com> wrote:

I would suggest the Apple High Speed SCSI card or
maybe the Focus IDE card/drive for the IIGS. The
Focus would be a bit slower than the RamFAST but
the Apple card (in IIGS mode) really is as fast as the
RamFAST. I don't care what folks who have not

Got something against me Timer? I have one MicroDrive
Plug'N'Play hard card left 800 mb IDE faster than a speeding
SCSI, more powerful than an 800k floppy.

Joachim Lange's MicroDrive hard card was one piece
of IIGS hardware that I never did get a chance to play
with. That's the only reason I didn't mention it.

If it really is as fast as the other solutions, then I'm
all for recommending it. Like I said, the reason I
didn't mention it was simply because I never used
one.

That's a reasonable exclusion then. Now's your chance.
I have one left and am setting it up now. Will have 4
ProDOS partitions of 32 mb and 4 HFS of 160 mb each.
More than enough room for whatever you do on a IIgs. ;-)

Bill @ GarberStreet Enterprises };-)
Web Site - http://garberstreet.netfirms.com
Email - willy46pa@comcast.net



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

Anymore I think you're going to find that the SCSI card is going to be the bottleneck for data transfer and not the SCSI drive itself. I think 1mb/sec
on a GS is approximately what the RAMFast is rated and most drives made
after, oh the mid 90s anyway, can do several 10s of MB per second and
beyond. So even allowing for seek time, etc. the drive is probably waiting
on the SCSI card most of the time.

Not sure what you are looking for in terms of size, but--

I have used some Quantum ProDrive 50pin SCSI drives with good results (80-700mb). These were the drive of choice for Mac systems of the day so
those you find will most likely be Mac pulls. Maybe I have been lucky, but
the ones I have used are very quiet. After playing around with a 7200 RPM
scsi drive that sounded like a jet engine and ran at a temp that was quite literally too hot to touch, I decided I needed to scale back a couple steps.

Currently I am using a Seagate Hawk ST32155N 2.1GB SCSI as my primary drive.
It is only a 5400RPM drive which keeps it quiet/cool, and provides far more disk space than I will ever need. This actually causes some issues with directory allocation on an HFS volume, because at that size, it stores in
min 32k blocks. So even a 1k file shows up as 32k used disk space on a ~2GB HFS vol. Again, still not a disk space issue unless I've got tens of
thousands of 1k files.

I have another GS with a little 80mb Quantum ProDrive LPS which is so quiet that the fan on the SCSI case is louder than the drive motor, and it runs
like a tank.

Frankly, if you plan on keeping your gs for a long while, just stock up on a few 50pin SCSI drives and keep them stored away in an anti-static bag in
case one of your primary drives conks out. I don't think anybody is making
50 pin jobs anymore so pick some up while they are abundant and cheap on
ebay. You can use adaptors to get 80pin, etc. drives to work with a 50pin interface though, so there will be future solutions. You should be able to
get them off ebay for under $10 including shipping so they are cheap to acquire.

"S M Trimble" <fate7@removespamswbell.net> wrote in message news:QNxRa.1440$q17.903988283@newssvr30.news.prodigy.com...

Hello,
Any suggestions on a fast (and relatively inexpensive if possible) SCSI

hard

drive replacement for my GS/ RamFAST rev D? I'm looking for something
faster than the ROMdisk (Ramkeeper) I've been using for booting.

Any brand/mfg./model/vendor you might recommend?

Thanks,
Shawn

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