I have been eyeing two possible mass storage options:

http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php

http://www.wbwip.com/shh/microdrv.html

Does anybody have any experience with these? I find them both
intriguing. Doesn't look like I am going to find any nifty ProFile
drives complete with interface cards laying about.

From:	Liam Busey
Subject:	Re: These new mass storage cards
Date:	Sat, 22 Jan 2005 20:53:26 -0500

"Forty Two" wrote in message
news:1106441000.29bddd2108721c7e59a4c87d3097d5a0@1usenet...
> I have been eyeing two possible mass storage options:
>
>
http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php
>
> http://www.wbwip.com/shh/microdrv.html
>
> Does anybody have any experience with these? I find them both
> intriguing. Doesn't look like I am going to find any nifty ProFile
> drives complete with interface cards laying about.

The CFFA boards are wonderful. My HS SCSI card is in semi retirement thanks
to one of those. They're small, fairly speedy, use common media, silent with
CF card, and are currently available.

I've never used a Microdrive but have had good dealings with SHH.

- Liam

From:	Simon Williams
Subject:	Re: These new mass storage cards
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 09:23:09 GMT

Forty Two wrote:

> I have been eyeing two possible mass storage options:
>
> http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php
>
> http://www.wbwip.com/shh/microdrv.html
>
> Does anybody have any experience with these? I find them both
> intriguing. Doesn't look like I am going to find any nifty ProFile
> drives complete with interface cards laying about.

I have both. Performance-wise they are indistinguishable. A nice feature
on the MicroDrive card is that you can hold down the Open-Apple key at
startup and select which partition to boot from, which is really handy
for me since I have it in a IIgs which I normally use with ProSel
(8-bit), but sometimes have the need to boot GS/OS.
I bought my MicroDrive from Bill at GarberStreet Ent. and I can safely
say he excels in the support department.

All said and done, I can't honestly recommend one over the other... why
don't you just get one of each? ;-)

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From:	Forty Two
Subject:	Re: These new mass storage cards
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 07:34:13 -0800

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 09:23:09 GMT, email@DELETE_THIS.luddite.no-ip.com
(Simon Williams) wrote:

>I have both. Performance-wise they are indistinguishable. A nice feature
>on the MicroDrive card is that you can hold down the Open-Apple key at
>startup and select which partition to boot from, which is really handy
>for me since I have it in a IIgs which I normally use with ProSel
>(8-bit), but sometimes have the need to boot GS/OS.
>I bought my MicroDrive from Bill at GarberStreet Ent. and I can safely
>say he excels in the support department.
>
>All said and done, I can't honestly recommend one over the other... why
>don't you just get one of each? ;-)

Hah Hah.. Thanks for everyone responses. I suspect I will have a hard
enough time selling the idea of one drive to my wife, let alone two.

Do you have some sense of the 'lead times' when ordering either of
these products? It appears for the CFFA card, they wait until they
have 100 orders, then order a production run (though I am not sure if
I am interpreting their information correctly. I left a request on
their forum for clarification). I haven't found any info regarding
this subject for the MicroDrive.

Does anybody have any concerns for the longevity of the CF storage
card? How about heat/power requirements for the MicroDrive using an
internal drive?

From:	HansO
Subject:	Re: These new mass storage cards
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:11:57 +0100

Forty Two wrote:
>
>Do you have some sense of the 'lead times' when ordering either of
>these products? It appears for the CFFA card, they wait until they
>have 100 orders, then order a production run (though I am not sure if
>I am interpreting their information correctly. I left a request on
>their forum for clarification).
Rich Dreher is at the moment building and sending (prepaid) CFFA cards of what
he calls the third, and likely final run of 100 CFFA cards. From the Order
status page it looks like 50 out of 100 are sold.
So 50 more can be ordered and then perhaps no more!
Mine is order nr 031 and I hope to receive it in a couple of weeks.

So order quickly and expect to wait 6 weeks or so at
http://dreher.net/

> I haven't found any info regarding this subject for the MicroDrive.
Ask Bill Garber!

>Does anybody have any concerns for the longevity of the CF storage
>card?
A long time at least. Flash can be rewriiten many cycles and newer flash cards
seem to reassign bad blocks. But its like a hard disk: it can and will fail,
sooner or later.

>How about heat/power requirements for the MicroDrive using an
>internal drive?
I have a Microdrive and it runs fine on internal power in a GS, with a 2 1/2
inch diskdrive, the notebook type.

From:	GarberStreet
Subject:	Re: These new mass storage cards
Date:	Sat, 22 Jan 2005 21:51:25 -0500

Forty Two wrote in message
news:1106441000.29bddd2108721c7e59a4c87d3097d5a0@1usenet...
: I have been eyeing two possible mass storage options:
:
:
http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php
:
: http://www.wbwip.com/shh/microdrv.html
:
: Does anybody have any experience with these? I find them both
: intriguing. Doesn't look like I am going to find any nifty ProFile
: drives complete with interface cards laying about.

I have had pretty much experience with both and I carry the
MicroDrive card. I have them with CF card adapters and they
can be partitioned just like a hard drive, any way you like. The
CFFA is great too, but they partition the card with 32MB sized
partitions until there is not enough and makes the last one less.
So you get with a 128MB CF card 3 x 32MB and one 26.5.
The Microdrive comes with separate utilities for partitioning.
The CFFA does not. It is automatic when the computer sees
it. About the same price so it's really up to you which one you
get, although I believe the Microdrive CF card adaptation is
faster. I haven't completed the testing on them yet, but all of
the indications show that it is 10-15% faster than the CFFA.
Joachim is designing a CF adapter that will allow you to use
possibly 2 CF cards, one master, and one slave, or one CF
and a hard drive. I am looking into the possibility of a driver
for the IIgs that will let you use IDE CD-ROM drives. If I
can't program it myself, I'll see if I can get help, or better yet
get someone to actually program it for me. Of course, this is
your choice which you get. I won't try to coerce you in any
way. I support both venues. :o)

Apple II Forever, and Apple II Together,
Bill @ GarberStreet Enterprizez };-)
Web Site - http://garberstreet.netfirms.com
Email - willy46pa@comcast.net

From:	Ed Eastman
Subject:	Re: These new mass storage cards
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 07:37:29 -0600

Forty Two wrote:
> Does anybody have any experience with these? I find them both
> intriguing.
I have both as well. I love the CFFA card. They are small, compact,
light and travel well from computer to computer. (I won 3 of them.) but
I can't find any CF media that _works_ in it. I have tried Sandisk and
any other brands large and dinky capacity, newer and older and I have
not found one that works. I am using the "IBM Microdrive" 340Meg
mechanism instead in my CFFA and it works very well so I know the cards
work. The "IBM Microdrive" is a CF size hard drive and it is great
except for an audible high pitched whir.

I like the microdrive a little better as it seems faster than the CFFA.
But I don't like to carry it around as it feels a bit more impact
unfriendly when wielding it.

My 2 cents,
Ed

From:	Andy McFadden
Subject:	Re: These new mass storage cards
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 18:10:09 GMT

Ed Eastman wrote:
>> Does anybody have any experience with these? I find them both
>> intriguing.

> I have both as well. I love the CFFA card. They are small, compact,
> light and travel well from computer to computer. (I won 3 of them.) but
> I can't find any CF media that _works_ in it. I have tried Sandisk and
> any other brands large and dinky capacity, newer and older and I have
> not found one that works.

Strange. You may have a bad CFFA card. I've had no trouble with SanDisk
media (32MB and 512MB).

CF is certainly easier to carry around if you know the place you're going
has a CF reader.

--
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From:	GarberStreet
Subject:	Re: These new mass storage cards
Date:	Sun, 23 Jan 2005 16:56:24 -0500

Ed Eastman wrote in message
news:ct08u8$g25$1@unlnews.unl.edu...
: Forty Two wrote:
: > Does anybody have any experience with these? I find them both
: > intriguing.
: I have both as well. I love the CFFA card. They are small, compact,
: light and travel well from computer to computer. (I won 3 of them.) but
: I can't find any CF media that _works_ in it. I have tried Sandisk and
: any other brands large and dinky capacity, newer and older and I have
: not found one that works. I am using the "IBM Microdrive" 340Meg
: mechanism instead in my CFFA and it works very well so I know the cards
: work. The "IBM Microdrive" is a CF size hard drive and it is great
: except for an audible high pitched whir.
:
: I like the microdrive a little better as it seems faster than the CFFA.
: But I don't like to carry it around as it feels a bit more impact
: unfriendly when wielding it.

The MicroDrive IF card is capable of using CF cards with an
adapter, which I now supply with them if requested. Also, ///SHH
is developing a CF adapter with IDE ports so you can use 2 CF
cards, or 1 CF and 1 hard drive. Master/slave style. Oops, maybe
I wasn't supposed to mention that yet. Sorry Joachim. :o)

Apple II Forever, and Apple II Together,
Bill @ GarberStreet Enterprizez };-)
Web Site - http://garberstreet.netfirms.com
Email - willy46pa@comcast.net

From:	John Van Winkle
Subject:	Re: These new mass storage cards
Date:	Sat, 22 Jan 2005 22:53:11 -0600

I have one in my IIe and I love it. It has the 128MB SANDISK card and boots
my IIe in about 3 secs. More space and faster than the Profile HD. Highly
recommend you getting one for large storage capacity.

"Forty Two" wrote in message
news:1106441000.29bddd2108721c7e59a4c87d3097d5a0@1usenet...
> I have been eyeing two possible mass storage options:
>
>
http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php
>
> http://www.wbwip.com/shh/microdrv.html
>
> Does anybody have any experience with these? I find them both
> intriguing. Doesn't look like I am going to find any nifty ProFile
> drives complete with interface cards laying about.
>

From:	Eric Smith
Subject:	Re: These new mass storage cards
Date:	23 Jan 2005 02:11:05 -0800

Forty Two writes:
> I have been eyeing two possible mass storage options:
> http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php

It's awesome. Definitely the way to go.

> http://www.wbwip.com/shh/microdrv.html

Have't looked at it.

> Does anybody have any experience with these? I find them both
> intriguing. Doesn't look like I am going to find any nifty ProFile
> drives complete with interface cards laying about.

Unless you're looking for historical authenticity, you are *really*
much better off with a CFFA card. Many Profile drive mechanisms are
going bad these days; they weren't made to last 20 years.

No disk drive model is expected to have a high probability of working
after 20 years; the standard design life is 5 years. Some models have
better longevity than others, and sometimes you just get lucky. It's a
bathtub curve. They don't all go bad at once, but after a particular
age (which is not predictable and varies depending on the model and
production lot) the probability of failure increases dramatically.

Eric