roy@ics.uci.edu (John M.A. Roy) (02/27/90)
Anybody out there have a Cipher or Qualstar tape system that they like or dislike? We are about to purchase one or the other, specifically: 1. Qualstar 1260-SYS with a PCDI-1 controller ~$5k 2. Qualstar TapeLinx 1260 with a TX-8 controller ~$5k 3. Ciper 990M with a TX-8 controller ~$8k I know the Cipher is faster and has other features, but is it worth the extra money. I'm also interested in service and reliability. There is also a piece of software, called TapeView, which I've got a demo for, it seems pretty good. Question: is it really necessary or is the usually stuff sufficient. TapeView seems to only work with TX-8 controllers. Thanks much, John M.A. Roy (714) 856-5039 ICS Dept., Univ. Calif., Irvine CA 92717 Internet: roy@ics.uci.edu
tat@pccuts.pcc.amdahl.com (Tom Thackrey) (03/01/90)
In article <25E9C047.16258@paris.ics.uci.edu> roy@ics.uci.edu (John M.A. Roy) writes: > >Anybody out there have a Cipher or Qualstar tape system that they like >or dislike? We are about to purchase one or the other, specifically: > > 1. Qualstar 1260-SYS with a PCDI-1 controller ~$5k > 2. Qualstar TapeLinx 1260 with a TX-8 controller ~$5k > 3. Ciper 990M with a TX-8 controller ~$8k > >I know the Cipher is faster and has other features, but is it worth >the extra money. I'm also interested in service and reliability. I bought a Qualstar 1260 / TX-8 and had very poor results. I tried various adapter cards and software and the drive was swapped a few times. The best it would do is read tapes it created. Tapes from other sources had lots of I/O errors, even though they worked on other systems. After 6 months of trying, I asked my dealer to find me another brand of drive. The dealer was very helpful all along the way. I now have a Pertec drive and a MicroTech adapter and software. It all works flawlessly. The software includes TAR and CPIO which was an added bonus. It cost me quite a bit more for the Pertec drive, but MicroTech gave me 100% of what I paid for the Qualstar and a good price on the Pertec. BTW I have no connection to Pertec or MicroTech. -- Tom Thackrey sun!amdahl!tat00 [ The opinions expressed herin are mine alone. ]