For compact Macs, I would agree that hard disks are more trouble than they are worth. Personally, given the limitations of the 68000, I prefer using an external ZIP drive -- even on a 68030 compact which might benefit from more storage. Let's face it, the old SCSI drives are getting more and more unreliable, they are generally noisy, and can be difficult to format and maintain.
With the obvious exception of stock 128 & 512k, a Zip drive can be used successfully on any Mac. Upgrading the ROM of a 128k & 512k and adding a SCSI port allows the ZIP to work with the earliest Mac. The Zip is quite, easy to use, reliable, and cheap, as well as making it easy to organize your software, rather than searching all over a large formatted hard disk without a decent search function in Vintage Macs.
Http://mac128.com/zip
Another option available to you on the 128K and 512K which makes a world of difference in lieu of a hard drive, is using an external (or internal) 800K drive. You'll find a link for this at the same site.
If Apple had released the first Mac with an 800K drive (as the Twiggy drive would have been), even with only 128K RAM, it would have been a much more pleasant experience, and might have changed Apple's future. Actually thinking about that prototype, that might have been one of the 11th hour unexpected problems with the Mac ... The developers had all been using 800K disks, so no one experienced what it was like to be constrained to a mere 400K until it was too late to do anything about it.
With the obvious exception of stock 128 & 512k, a Zip drive can be used successfully on any Mac. Upgrading the ROM of a 128k & 512k and adding a SCSI port allows the ZIP to work with the earliest Mac. The Zip is quite, easy to use, reliable, and cheap, as well as making it easy to organize your software, rather than searching all over a large formatted hard disk without a decent search function in Vintage Macs.
Http://mac128.com/zip
Another option available to you on the 128K and 512K which makes a world of difference in lieu of a hard drive, is using an external (or internal) 800K drive. You'll find a link for this at the same site.
If Apple had released the first Mac with an 800K drive (as the Twiggy drive would have been), even with only 128K RAM, it would have been a much more pleasant experience, and might have changed Apple's future. Actually thinking about that prototype, that might have been one of the 11th hour unexpected problems with the Mac ... The developers had all been using 800K disks, so no one experienced what it was like to be constrained to a mere 400K until it was too late to do anything about it.