🚀 go-pugleaf

It is hard drive time around my house, and having put some time into looking
for inexpensive quality, I thought people might be interested in my
experiences.  (And might perhaps comment on them before I take the FINAL
PLUNGE.)  I need a drive to go along with my Mac II, and figured one in
the 30-50 meg range would be ideal.  There are lots in the market, with
the cheapest (ahem, that is, least expensive) 40 running slightly under $1000
US.  With this price range in mind, I narrowed the field down to the drives
offered by three companies--CMS, Jasmine, and Warp Nine Engineering, and
also looked into the 20 meg Bernoulli offered by Bering Technology, at about
$1350 from some distributors.

I called all of these companies, and requested literature.  (I also called
several others, but they never made it to my final list, so I won't bother
mentioning them here.)  Interestingly, out of all of the companies I called, 
Bering has so far been the only one to send anything, which it did immediately
after I called.  Warp Nine said they didn't really have any info to send, on 
the drive I was interested in.  Jasmine I never heard from, but when I called,
they were just about to bring out an internal drive for the Mac II, and that
was the one I requested specs on--given that there was probably quite a lag
between when I called and when pamphlets were actually available to be sent
out, maybe its not surprising that my request was forgotten.  I called CMS
just in the last few days, and they said that they would have a dealer
contact me, so I'm still expecting that.

All of these companies seemed quite professional when I called, and they all
appeared to have their act together.  CMS and Bering were definitely the most
professional.

The drive specs are as follows:  Warp Nine offers a 50 meg internal for
the Mac II, with an average access time of 33ms.  Price (from Warp Nine)
is $950.  The Bering drive is a 20-meg removable with an average access
of 40ms.  It costs $1350 (from distributors), and cartridges go for about
$90.  Jasmine offers a 50(?) meg internal for $999(?)--access speed unknown,
but I believe that Jasmine drives are fairly speedy.  As I say, I didn't
get any info on this product through the mail, and it was brand new and
the specs weren't available when I called by phone.  The CMS drive is
40 meg, $975-$995 through distributors, and has an avg. access time of
<30ms.  (This is what their ad says, presumably the time is 28-29 ms.)
CMS and Warp Nine give a one-year warranty, Bering gives a 90 day warranty
and charges $50 more for extension to a year (but claims the Bernoulli
is less prone to head crashes than a standard hard disk), and Jasmine
gives, I believe, a one-year warranty--but check on that before buying.

A note to Canadian customers--including myself!--expect shipping prices to be
quite a bit higher than they would be in the U.S.  Jasmine, for instance,
charges about $80US to ship to Canada, which is not inconsequential.  
Shipping for the other companies is generally  similar.  Also concerning
Jasmine, I have recently heard a rumour that there is some problem in getting
Jasmine drives into Canada--export license difficulties, maybe?  (After all,
the Canadian gov. has to protect all of those Canadaian drive manufacturers
from unfair foreign competition :-) (Total number of Canadian companies making
hard drives:  0.))  But this is totally unconfirmed.

Finally, of interest to West Coast residents is the Saving Zone, in Redmond,
Washington.  They have good prices on the CMS drives, and were very helpful
when I called them.  I have not heard much about these people, but what I
have heard has been good; they seem to be very attentive to fixing problems
which may occur with people's purchases, such as DOA drives.  (It does
happen, occasionally.)

I know that there was supposed to be a posting concerning hard drives.
Either it didn't make it to this site, or I missed it.  If you've seen
such a posting, I apologise for taking up your time with this, it's
probablly just redundant info, and could you please send me a copy of the
hard disk posting.  If that posting hasn't made it to the net, then comments
on the above would no doubt be appreciated by net users.  (There seem to be a 
lot of 'em looking for hard drives.)


Ken McDonald
{ubc-vision!sfu-cmpt!mcdonald}

Disclaimer:  I have no connection with any of the above companies, not even
             as a satisfied customer, yet--but I'm hopin'!