day@grand.UUCP (Dave Yost) (05/13/89)
Recently I asked if anyone had experience with any of the various 45MB removable disk drives. Apparently all the different brands are made by the same manufacturer, Syquest. I got one reply that said he had a head crash right away and sent it back, and that he had heard of head crashes from several other people. I read in the manuals that you have to be very careful, don't jar the drive when it's running, follow such and such insertion and ejection procedures gently, etc., and they say, as with any hard disk drive, BACK UP YOUR DATA! Well, backup is what I want to use the drive for in the first place, so this doesn't sound too reassuring. Has anyone out there had consistently good experience with these things, or are they indeed shaky? --dave yost
knapp@cs.utexas.edu (Edgar Knapp) (05/13/89)
In article <494@grand.UUCP> day@grand.UUCP (Dave Yost) writes: >Recently I asked if anyone had experience >with any of the various 45MB removable disk >drives. Apparently all the different brands >are made by the same manufacturer, Syquest. > >I got one reply that said he had a head crash >right away and sent it back, and that he had >heard of head crashes from several other people. > [..] >Has anyone out there had consistently good >experience with these things, or are they >indeed shaky? > > --dave yost I use my 9 month old MassMicro 45MB removable almost daily for backup. So far it has performed flawlessly. But I think I would not use a removable hard disk as the primary storage medium for fear of a crash. The probability of your hard disk and your removable crashing at the same time, causing you to lose both original data and backup, is in my opinion negligible. Currently, I cannot imagine a more convenient and cost-effective way to backup large hard disks. Edgar (knapp@cs.utexas.edu)
bcase@cup.portal.com (Brian bcase Case) (05/14/89)
>Recently I asked if anyone had experience with any of the various 45MB >removable disk drives. Apparently all the different brands are made by >the same manufacturer, Syquest. yup. >and they say, as with any hard disk drive, BACK UP YOUR DATA! Well, backup >is what I want to use the drive for in the first place That's why I bought one. >Has anyone out there had consistently good experience with these things, >or are they indeed shaky? I've only had mine for about a week, but I love it. I have never owned a tape back up, but I think the removable disk makes more sense assuming that 45 MBytes is enough. I look at it this way: If my internal drive should go, I've still got a bootable drive. If I had purchased a tape backup, which isn't perfectly reliable either, and the internal disk had gone, then I am stuck for a while. However, the removable disk media is more expensive. I plan on getting more removable drives, they're great as far as I can tell. My only complaint is that the finder won't copy lots of files at once, even when I allocate lots of memory to the finder.
pgn@sphere.mast.ohio-state.edu (Paul Nevai) (05/14/89)
I've had remiovable drives for a year now. They are great! Not only as backup but also carrying your data between home and office! Now I can have all my files with me all the time. They are reliable, quiet and fast. I speak for MassMicro and PLI. Disclaimer: I own 99% of the stocks in ..... (just kidding). Have Orthogonal Polynomials Will Travel Paul Nevai pgn@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu Department of Mathematics TS1171@OHSTVMA.bitnet The Ohio State University 73057,172.Compu$erve 231 West Eighteenth Avenue 1-614-292-5310.office Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A. 1-614-292-4975.dept
syap@cc.rochester.edu (James Fitzwilliam) (05/15/89)
The 45M removable units are very nice. One friend of mine works at a desktop publishing place, and the owners of that were so impressed with the Mass Micro drive that they now sell them at a discount, so their customers with large scans can bring them in on cartridges. They have had numerous crashes with the unit, but this seems to be NOT the fault of the drive or media. People frequently smoke near the machines, and they have every bizarre device imaginable in the SCSI chain. Plus some of the customers don't know how to eject the disks properly. As far as backing up, you can get a dual removable, so that you could back up your cartridges on other cartridges, and get the best of both worlds. I've seen this as low as $2300. As soon as I can afford one, I'm getting it. They aren't totatlly crash proof, but then again, what is? syap@vera.cc.rochester.edu ...!rochester!vera!syap GEnie: FITZWILLIAM
andyc@inteloa.intel.com (T. Andrew Crump) (05/15/89)
I too have been considering purchasing a 45MB removable and am concerned about
reliability. I have heard conflicting reports and would like more data.
Thanks,
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dlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (David L. Williams) (05/18/89)
Well, my DPI 44R drive works like a champ! I have 10 cartridges for it and they all work just fine! I have four other friends who have the same drive and we all use them regularly with no problems. -David
ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith) (05/25/89)
I had a couple of them for a while. I don't have them any more because the owner wanted them back since we had finished the SCSI driver we were writing. It never occured to me to look at the manual to see how to insert and remove cartridges. I would say that I did not take any special precautions. I just sort of treated them as big floppies, and there were never any problems. They also bounced around the back of my car when I took them on a trip, and did not seem to be damaged. One of them had trouble spinning up once after spending all night outside in the car on a cold winter night, but that was the only problem I ever saw. Gee, looking at the above, I sure hope the company we were doing this stuff for is not reading this :-) Tim Smith