On Sun, 31 Jan 1999, David Williams wrote:
> I do have an unknown card for the A2 which I've been told was a
> Sider controller. I may give them a try together but of course I don't
> have any drivers Sam, hint, hint?
Oh yeah, I think I remember you posting about the card trying to identify
it. As far as drivers, everything you need is on the card and the hard
drive. Remember, with the Apple ][, the "driver" software is embedded on
a PROM or EPROM on the card itself which maps directly into a memory space
dedicated to the slot the card is plugged in to.
You should be able to just plug the card in (I suggest slot 7) and connect
the hard drive to the card. Did you get the ribbon cable that connects
to the end of the card and terminates with a DE-37 enclosed in a big metal
bracket? Did you also get the thick black cable that connects from this
DE-37 to the back of the hard drive? Finally, did you get the terminator
that plugs into the other connector on the hard drive? (You are able to
daisy-chain multiple hard drives together. I think the limit is 2 but
don't hold me to that).
Assuming you have all the required cables (my guess is that you a re
missing the ribbon cable still), connect them all together and fire it all
up. Hopefully the drive is not crashed and the OS installed will boot.
The hard drive controller loads the first sector off the hard disk, which
is the boot sector. That then loads the rest of the OS and then boots the
OS. As far as I know, the initial boot is always into DOS 3.3. Then
there is a First Class Peripherals menu that allows you to boot into other
partitions (you could partition it for ProDOS, CP/M, and Pascal). I have
all the formatting and installation software if you need it. But if it
boots into anything then you're set.
I modified the boot sector on mine to allow me to bypass the harddrive and
boot to floppies if I held down the open-apple key. Open-Apple key for
convenience. One of the ways to reboot an Apple //e is to hold down the
Control and Open-Apple keys while pressing Reset. I added some code in
the HD boot sector to look for Open-Apple being depressed. If it sees it,
it then forces a boot to the floppy drive. So when I reboot my machine
with Ctrl-OA-Reset, if I continued holding down the Open-Apple key I could
boot right to floppies. If I let go quick enough I would boot the hard
drive. It took only a couple practice tries to get used to it.
> One note, the labels don't call it a Sider ][, just a The Sider. Was
> the Sider A2 only or did they sell it for other systems too?
As far as I know they only marketed the sider to the Apple world. The
Sider is a 10MB unit, and the Sider ][ is 20MB. There's also the B-Sider
which is a companion tape backup unit (I don't know the capacity).
> > $40? At a thift store? Sheesh. $15 tops.
>
> Actually that wasn't at a thrift, it was a pawn shop. Though at the
That explains it. I've been to pawn shops before where their prices were
higher than retail!! It makes me want to strangle the owner just out of
disgust.
> > > Odyssey2 in box
> >
> > Cool.
>
> Yes, I like this one. I've had a bunch of carts for it for a long time
> and finally found a system to play them on.
Well, don't get your hopes up about the games. They suck for the most
part.
> > I forgot all about that. Were you in voice contact with them or e-mail?
>
> I was in email with them. They were local and called me once but I
> don't have a number for them. After not receiving a reply to several
> emails over the last couple of months and not getting any bounce
> messages, I've given up on them and the recorders.
I've had situations where the seller just wasn't receiving my e-mails.
Give them one more chance and look up their number. If they were being
asses about it, at least by confronting them on the telephone they will be
more likely to tell you what happened as opposed to just hanging up on
you.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Sun Jan 31 1999 - 12:14:19 GMT