#Smart And Friendly
16 messages in this thread
Forgive me, everyone, if this has been asked before…
Has anyone heard of "Smart and Friendly" drives? They are being
advertised gang-busters here in Toronto all of the sdden, along with the
occasional Toshiba 3401 (?). Can someone confirm that the Smart and Friendly
drives are Toshiba drives? I'm assuming that is the case, since the specs are
identical. Are there any differences that anyone knows of?
I am rather shocked to hear that the Toshiba has a 3-pin audio interface,
when most soundcards (including my Gravis Ultrasound) have 4-pin. I guess the
Smart and Friendlys will be the same way. If this is true, is there a proper
name given to both/either ends of this cable? (I'm used to RCA and BNC in
Television – is there an equivalent naming convention here?) I'd like to know
before I go hunting for the cable or the parts to make one.
A lot of questions – I appreciate anyone's help.
Paul
Paul.
As far as I know, the Smart & Friendly, is a Toshiba 3401 drive. But it's
from the
States, and therefore the drive warranty will not be honored in Canada. Where
did you find the drive. I see in Toronto Computes, that NPC has it for
$775/929. Try
CDR Technologies at 940-5807 or Global Drive Solutions 475-1964.
I hope this helps you. Im in the same boat, but I'm adding this to my PS/2
80/A21.
If you need any more info or just a chat, drop me a line.
Roger
Paul,
I recently got a "Smart and Friendly". I was told by the salesman (for what
it's worth) that this actually was a Toshiba drive. I am having a couple of
difficulties, though. First of all, I've got to find some sort of 3-pin to
4-pin adaper to run this into my Sound Blaster, or else if I get desperate, I
could make one by trial-and-error.
The second difficulty is more severe. If you plan to use this with an existing
SCSI adapter, be certain your SCSI adapter manufacturer can supply drivers. I
just found out that with my Ultrastor 14F adapter, I have to purchase ($$$)
additional drivers.
I'm looking for a way around this.
Dan
Paul,
UltraStor has a BBS – they may have a driver that's free for the down-loading.
I'm sorry, but I can't find the phone number.
– Mark
Paul,
I've heard about a package called UltraOpt from UltraStor which has the drivers
we might need. Supposedly it retails for about $39. If I find out where I can
but it, I'll let you know. (Or if you find it first, you can let me know.)
Good luck in your endeavors,
Dan
Dan:
Thanks for your warning about that cable (as I saw in other messages too).
I bought the Toshiba internal on Saturday, along with a ProAudio 16 sound card,
the SCSI kit, AND the weird audio cable to join the two (he had ONE in stock).
It all hooked together great, and it screams along.
Paul
Paul,
Could you tell me how to get one of those cables???
Dan
A cable for the Toshiba drive to the Pro Audio Spectrum 16 (and probably other
Media Vision cards) is $11.00 (including S&H) from Media Vision. Call
1-800-356-7886 to order. I almost had to order a cable from them, but my
dealer finally came through with one!
Paul
Paul,
PMJI, but I have a XM3301B and a GUS. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get a cable here in
Austria. If you can find a source over there, PLEASE (!!!) let me know. I'll
owe you somtehing, for sure!!
Christian
P.S. I think there are no (standard, I mean) names for those connectors. esp.
the one on the Toshiba. The other one on the GUS is fairly standard, the same
as used for jumper headers (0,1" or 2,54 mm, whatever you prefer). I have the
pinouts for both. the GUS is Left-GND-GND-Right, the Toshiba is something like
GND-Left-Right (I don't have it in my mind right now, but GND is definetly not
in the center). If I can't get the cable anywhere I'll try to get the parts and
make one myself. As I have heard, I could open a business on this 🙂
Christian:
I was lucky – a bought the Toshiba internal, and a ProAudio Spectrum 16, and
the guy I got it from had the special audio cable (although, I wouldn't have
known to ASK if it hadn't been for all you nice people tipping me off about
this). The ProAudio is a 5-pin connector, and he had one 3-5 pin cable around
(through it in for free!).
The setup is great, and so far I love the drive. Happily ditched the Gravis
Ultrasound – I admire your patience for sticking with it. The ProAudio
installed so easily, comes with a whole suite of really nice Windows programs,
and hasn't locked Windows up on me once. I felt like crying when I thought
about the 5 months of my life I wasted trying to get the Ultrasound to work in
Windows (let alone DOS games).
Paul
Paul,
congratulations! Well, I don't give up on the GUS, as I am really a stubborn
one. Sometimes I feel like you, wasting so much time on the GUS. I have added a
Soundblaster (actually a very cheap clone) now and can run both cards,
simultanously! It's really nice. Still have to get a cable. Must have that darn
Toshiba connector on one side. Don't care what's on the other hand, that can be
reconfigured. I don't know, why the SB Pro (and my SB clone), the GUS and the
PAS have all different connectors. Seems like sound board manufacturers are
ganging up to let us experience hell! Shame on them!
Christian
Paul, I live in Toronto and have purchased the Smart and Friendly drive you
mention. I can confirm it is indeed a Toshiba 3401B. It has the Toshiba sticker
on the bottom of the drive. I purchased mine with a Trantor 128 controller, and
it works fine so far (I just installed it yesterday).
I'm using an old basic soundblaster card, so I don't use it as the
controller, nor do I run audio through it. I still get soundblaster sound with
no problem, output to a stereo receiver I have in my office. For the CD music
output, I have simply routed the headphone output of the CD-ROM drive into the
same receiver. Seems to work fine.
David
David:
Thanks. As a couple of other messages to others will detail, I bought the
Toshiba internal on Saturday, and love it.
These are fast suckers, aren't they?
Paul
Paul
Since you now have the Toshiba drive, perhaps you can tell me what controller
you bought with it. The dealer I purchased it from sold me a Trantor T128, and
I can't seem to get it to read Photo CDs. I'd be interested to know whether
you've tried to read Photo CDs and what the results have been.
David
David:
The 'kit' I got with the drive wasn't conventional, in that there was no
packaging or box. I got the SCSI cable, the audio cable, and one disk marked
Trantor Media Vision CD-ROM driver. I hope at some point to press a Kodak CD
of some negs I have, but that will be a few weeks off. I hope it works!
Paul