chinn@butler.UUCP (David Chinn) (08/01/86)
We are looking around for some sort of mass
storage backup... something quick, and efficient.
We are thinking about getting a tape drive. The
problem is that we have about a dozen or so [pxa]t's
and we would like to have a tape drive that we could
move around easily. This means not having to pop
the top off everytime you wanted to backup a different
machine... the idea being that if you had such a portable
tape, you could do daily backups pretty painlessly.
Is there any such beast? Any pointers to someone who might
know?
Thanks in Advance
... uw-beaver david m chinn
!tikal!dataio box 639
!butler!chinn redmond, wash 98073roger@inmet.UUCP (08/06/86)
<chomp...chomp...buhhrrrpp> I believe Maynard Electronics in Fla. makes a carry-around 1/4" cartridge tape drive. It uses a proprietary interface, so you have to give up a slot to their card, and buy cards for each of your [p,x,a]T's in order to use it. But the connector is made to be repetitively plugged/unplugged and the unit itself looks to be relatively easy to lug around (unless, of course, the lady in their magazine ad is really 6'6"). I have no experience with the product, but I've been giving it some serious thought - buying tape drives for every PC in the company is really kind of a dumb idea. If anyone has any experience with this product, I'd sure like to see it on the net. Roger Brockett !ihnp4!ima!inmet!roger Intermetrics, Inc. 725 Concord Ave. Cambridge, MA -- "A multitude of mesons is within you all" - Racter
keithe@tekgvs.UUCP (Keith Ericson) (08/06/86)
In article <230@butler.UUCP> chinn@butler.UUCP (David Chinn) writes: > We are looking around for some sort of mass storage backup... > > We are thinking about getting a tape drive. The problem is that we > have about a dozen or so [pxa]t's and we would like to have a tape > drive that we could move around easily. This means not having to pop > the top off everytime you wanted to backup a different machine... > > Is there any such beast? Any pointers to someone who might know? > I have a MicroSystems International MT25 Disk Backup system that several of us in the office use. It connects to the (37 pin?) connector on the back of the PC and XT floppy-disk controller, so it fits the "no top-popping" requirement. It holds up to 24 megabytes of stuff, and is pretty fast (around a megabyte per minuste as I recall) except for the tape formatting, which takes approximately forever! It uses the DC600A 1/4" tape cartridges. They also sell an adapter card for AT's to provide the missing connector, and the card can be configured to occupy some "friendly" address so as to not conflict with the existing controller. I've not gotten it to work with an AT that also had a PGA in it; I've yet to verify that it works with a different display adapter (mono, CGA or EGA), but "they" say it will... As I recall it costs around a kilobuck when I bought it about a year ago. keith Keith Ericson at TekLabs (resident factious factotum) Tektronix, PO 500, MS 58-383 Beaverton OR 97077 (503)627-6042 uucp: [ucbvax|decvax|ihnp4|hplabs|(and_many_others)]!tektronix!tekgvs!keithe CSnet: keithe%tekgvs@tektronix ARPAnet: keithe%tekgvs%tektronix@csnet-relay