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The Word 13
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The Word 13 (Disk 1 of 2).adf
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02-Hard_Disk.txt
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02-Hard_Disk.txt
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1997-03-02
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66 lines
$fa8|1- Eyetech 3.5" Drives
$aa4 By Sorcerer/Wildfire
$89f
Thinking of buying an 3.5" Hard Drive but to scared to fit it? This was
my problem until I was hunting through the mags for cheap hard drives,
but then I came across Eyetechs advert for Ultra Slime IDE Hard Drives.
So not having much money I went for the cheapest size available the
630mb one, a quick ring to Eyetech later and I was told that I was
purchasing one of the last remaining hard drives of this size EVER, I
was also told that the 630mb one needs a few modifications to my Amiga
as it is slightly bigger then the ones over a Gig in size.
After about an hour of deciding I thought, yes why not, if I bugger up
the Amiga I can just use my spare A1200 :). Anyway I sent off the
cheque and about 3 days later there it was, a Seagate 630mb ultra slim
hard drive. I immediatly tore open the wrapping and pulled out the
instructions. They told me that I would need a Hand Drill, and some
other bits and pieces such as selotape and tin foil???!?
I suddenly realised that this may not be quite the job I thought it
would be, but what choice did I have? Either leave it in the box or
attempt a bit of DIY. I Started by earthing myself with the supplied
wire and put my Amiga on a flat table (after removing my Blizzard 68030
Accelerator) and unscrewed the screws and invalidated the warrenty by
removing that little sticker over one of the screws. I eased the lid
off and wedged it by the edge of my now opened Amiga. I asked myself
looking into the void of nothingness that was in my Amiga "Theres not
much to this computer" but soon realised that it was all hidden away
under the shielding, so therewas no way I could damage it (hurah!). So
all you really have to do is unplug a few things, and rearrange some
wiring and plugs that they supply you to get the Hard Disk LED
connected, and power etc. Snip a tiny bit of sticky out shielding
(Hardest Bit), drill 2 holes in the plastic casing to screw the hard
drive into the relivant position. Remove the old 2.5" drive cradle
(this just pulls out) and put it all back together. So you may ask, did
I have any problems well yes but after a quick phonecall or two to
Eyetech these were easily solved thanks to their helpfull staff. The
drive comes with everything you need, such as screws and the correct
cables and even sticky pads. No soldering is required and you don't
even need to touch any chips.
The Eyetech drive comes with a load of PD and if you get one of the gig
Hard Drives you get free MMExperience, but mine being 630MB I didn't
<Sob>, still it comes with music modules, Pictures, even the old Amiga
CD32 advert digitised where some alien thingy pops up and starts playing
Microcism. This in itself is 18 MEG+ in size. You also get a digitised
anim + sound of someone at Eyetech congratulating you on fitting the
drive?!?!
My drive is now running with a Blizzard accelerator and 4 MEGS of Fast
Ram with the same Commodore Supplied PSU perfectly well and it has a SYS
info reading of 2.5 MEGS a second in speed.
Overall I would tell anyone who hasn't got a hard drive to get one now,
even if it means getting a 3.5" one and fitting it yourself as they make
the world of difference. Workbench boots in a few seconds, no more disk
swapping, extra fast loading times etc. etc. etc. etc.etc. etc.
Overall Rating 9/10
end