[Color Computer] [coco] My first hard drive

[George Ramsower]

I'm reminded of when I got my first hard drive for my coco.

Jeesh, what a nightmare!

 Back around '94(I think), someone gave me an external hard disk cabinet 
which included a broken MFM drive and a controller card with a SCSI 
interface.

I had some difficulty getting my brain around this, as I didn't understand 
this stuff at all.

Once I got a handle on the concept, I bought a Ken-Ton interface card and 
tried to get the HD to work.

 Not.

 So I scanned the BBS systems and found a dude that had two five meggers for 
just a hundred bucks.
 I got ripped off. One didn't work at all. After opening it up, I discovered 
both of the platters were gouged in the landing zone so badly, it looked as 
if it was hit with a grinder.
 The other drive would format, work for a while and then totally die. I 
could reformat it and try again, but with the same results.
 The next HD I bought didn't work... $20

 Then I found an outfit that refurbishes hard drives and had a warranty.  I 
asked for and bought two 20 meg SCSI drives. I recieved two 30meg drives. I 
called then and asked if this was a mistake and they told me they didn't 
have any 20 meggers available at the time so they just sent the thirties.
  I'm still using them. One is always in the computer. The other is waiting 
for the next backup.
 I alternate the drives so they get equal useage.
 It keeps the bearings loose.

 A backup(diskcopy) takes only about fourteen hours on my coco3 512K. I 
think now the drive/s have about fifteen megs of data.
 I'm sure there's a better way to do a backup this sort of system, but I 
know how to do it this way...

 I (stupidly) reformat the backup drive, then diskcopy all the current HD 
onto it.
 Then I move the freshly written HD into the coco box(repacked into a PC 
case) and put the oldest copy into a secure place..

 I think I still have that SCSI><MFM controller card somewhere.

George

 



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