burgin@ecsvax.UUCP (Robert Burgin) (04/29/88)
Has anyone used a Bernoulli box with an AT or AT-level machine? With what results? Any problems? I get mixed signals through the grapevine - some say the Bernoulli box is troublesome; some say it's trouble free. --rb
mdf@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Mark D. Freeman) (05/01/88)
In <5013@ecsvax.UUCP> burgin@ecsvax.UUCP (Robert Burgin) writes: >Has anyone used a Bernoulli box with an AT or AT-level machine? >With what results? Any problems? BBs are great, if you accept certain parameters. The cartridges need to be replaced about every 18 months. They wear out. The older interface cards didn't deal with fast busses, fast machines, or some clones very well (intermittent errors). The drives need to be cleaned (a 5 minute job) about once per month, or you are asking for a service call. The new 5-1/4" BBs are terrific. I have one of the original twin 10M 8" boxes (70 pounds) which works very well. I'd let it go for $700 if anyone would be interested in trying one of these devices. (We are converting to the new-style BBs.) -- Mark D. Freeman (614) 262-1418 mdf@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu 2440 Medary Avenue ...!cbosgd!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mdf Columbus, OH 43202-3014 Guest account at The Ohio State University
neighorn@catlabs.UUCP (Steven C. Neighorn) (05/15/88)
In article <5013@ecsvax.UUCP> burgin@ecsvax.UUCP (Robert Burgin) writes: > >Has anyone used a Bernoulli box with an AT or AT-level machine? >With what results? Any problems? > >I get mixed signals through the grapevine - some say the Bernoulli >box is troublesome; some say it's trouble free. My experience falls with the trouble-free camp. We have 10 machines (some PC/XT's, PC/AT's, and Tandy 4000's) with both external 8" drives, and internal and external 5.25" drives. We also have about a dozen more out in the field, all with the internal 5.25" unit. Our luck with Bernoulli has been very good. They are a little slower than rigid hard drives, and the formatting software for some reason requires deleting our Ethernet drivers from the config.sys file while it is operating, but other than that, no major problems whatsoever. New b-box owners should be warned that the 'thunk' sound the drives make when deactivating is normal, and their machine has not been possessed. We use the cartridges for moving software systems around, for back-up purposes, and for updating our Computer Adaptive Testing sites with the latest version. I highly recommend them, but shop around, as prices seem to vary by quite a few deviations between dealers. -- Steven C. Neighorn ...!tektronix!{psu-cs,reed,ogcvax}!qiclab!catlabs!neighorn Portland Public Schools "Where we train young Star Fighters to defend the (503) 249-2000 ext 337 frontier against Xur and the Ko-dan Armada"
emigh@ncsugn.ncsu.edu (Ted H. Emigh) (05/16/88)
Distribution: Organization: Genetics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC Keywords: In article <5013@ecsvax.UUCP> burgin@ecsvax.UUCP (Robert Burgin) writes: > >Has anyone used a Bernoulli box with an AT or AT-level machine? >With what results? Any problems? > >I get mixed signals through the grapevine - some say the Bernoulli >box is troublesome; some say it's trouble free. I have had an internal Bernoulli for a couple of months now. Others in my department have had them for several years. We have had very little trouble with them in the course of that time -- only one got here DOA, and that was replaced immediately. I have no idea about the speed of the disks. I have a standard IBM/AT with the old 20 MB hard disk. When I run a program like NORTON's DiskTest (which reads all the sectors on the disk) the Bernoulli runs at about twice the speed. The big slowdown is that Bernoulli unloads the heads after about 5 seconds of idle time (a huge "CLUNK" when doing so). I use T3 for technical word processing. The program uses lots of overlays, etc, and is constantly reading from the disk. T3 does not work well on the Bernoulli, as it usually unloads the head between disk accesses -- thus slowing it down when it finally does read the disk (not to mention all those "CLUNK"s). It is great for backup, for exchanging large amounts of data between machines, etc. I have also put some LARGE programs (such as PC-SAS, taking up some 10MB of disk space) on a Bernoulli and run them from there. The newer Bernoulli's come with a program BBACKIT for backing up Bernoulli's. It is a great little program -- and makes backing up a single Bernoulli quite easy. -- Ted H. Emigh, Dept. Genetics and Statistics, NCSU, Raleigh, NC uucp: mcnc!ncsuvx!ncsugn!emigh internet: emigh%ncsugn.ncsu.edu BITNET: NEMIGH@TUCC @ncsuvx.ncsu.edu:emigh@ncsugn.ncsu.edu