david@jc3b21.UUCP (David Quarles) (02/28/89)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= If you have used one of the cartridge-type of data storage devices, I would appreciate your thoughts on your experiences. I am considering a purchase. There was a long article in MacUser in the March 1989 issue. I am interested (others too ?) in the 40+ Meg cartridge types. They seem to offer the best price/Meg. I attended the 9th Annual Florida Instructional Computing Conference in Orlando, Florida last month and was impressed with one that was used in a presentation. It looked pretty good. WHAT DO YOU THINK ??? Thanks. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dave =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= EOT
dlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (David L. Williams) (03/03/89)
David Quarles asks: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= >If you have used one of the cartridge-type of data storage devices, I >would appreciate your thoughts on your experiences. I have a DPI 44meg cartridge drive and so do 2 of my friends and we love them. Nice, fast response time and its great the way you can just pop em in and out like nice big 44meg floppies! I think they are the next best thing to magneto-optical drives (a al NeXT). The drive mechanism for ALL the cartridge drives of this type come from SyQuest. I use a Mass Micro formatted cartridge in my DPI with no problems. So I'd highly recommend the DPI(Direct Peripherals Inc.) drive. David Williams
darryl@ism780c.isc.com (Darryl Richman) (03/03/89)
In article <586@jc3b21.UUCP> david@jc3b21.UUCP (David Quarles) writes: >If you have used one of the cartridge-type of data storage devices, I >would appreciate your thoughts on your experiences. > >I am interested (others too ?) in the 40+ Meg cartridge types. They >seem to offer the best price/Meg. I have a DPI 44R removable. It's very fast, reasonably quiet, and works well. About the only problem I've noticed with it is that the system doesn't recgnize the drive if you boot without a disk in it. This is, I suppose, pretty obvious, but it means that if you want to backup your hard drive, you must load a disk and reboot, or keep one spinning all the time. Sort of a shame they didn't put a "proto" driver into ROMs in the box. Backup is just a finder copy away, as is restore. You can throw the disk in the trash and change cartridges just like a floppy. It spins up and down in a few seconds, and the access time is claimed at 25ms, which is pretty good. --Darryl Richman -- Copyright (c) 1989 Darryl Richman The views expressed are the author's alone darryl@ism780c.isc.com INTERACTIVE Systems Corp.-A Kodak Company "For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken
jfm@ruddles.sprl.umich.edu.engin.umich.edu (John F. Mansfield) (03/03/89)
In article <23865@ism780c.isc.com> darryl@ism780c.UUCP (Darryl Richman) writes: > >I have a DPI 44R removable. It's very fast, reasonably quiet, and >works well. About the only problem I've noticed with it is that the >system doesn't recgnize the drive if you boot without a disk in it. >This is, I suppose, pretty obvious, but it means that if you want to >backup your hard drive, you must load a disk and reboot, or keep >one spinning all the time. If you keep the cdev SCSI Tools by Paul Mercer in your system folder, you can mount a disk at anytime after booting. This at least works with our DataPak from Mass Micro. The cdev is shareware and I think is available on Sumex where it may be called something like SCSIbus or SCSI1.05B3 or whatever. Check out info-mac/cdev the list isnt too long. Hope this is useful. Cheers John Mansfield North Campus Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory 2455 Hayward, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2143. 313-936-3352 Internet: jfm@ruddles.sprl.umich.edu or john_mansfield.um.cc.umich.edu
t-jacobs@wasatch.UUCP (Tony Jacobs) (03/04/89)
In article <11540175@hpsmtc1.HP.COM> dlw@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (David L. Williams) writes: > >The drive mechanism for ALL the cartridge drives of this type come from >SyQuest. I use a Mass Micro formatted cartridge in my DPI with no problems. > >David Williams Both the Beiring and the Iomega use Iomega cartridges which are bernoulli style floppies. On a related note, Iomega has been working with a floppy drive maker to make a 3.5" floppy drive (Standard Sony type floppies) that wil not only read 400, 800, and I think 1.4meg floppies, but will read & write 20megs onto one of those floppies!!! Boy that's less than $.25/meg! (High Density Floppy ~$5) -- Tony Jacobs * Center for Engineering Design * U of U * t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu
darryl@ism780c.isc.com (Darryl Richman) (03/08/89)
In article <41cdbfd1.a590@mag.engin.umich.edu> jfm@ruddles.sprl.umich.edu.UUCP (John F. Mansfield) writes: "In article <23865@ism780c.isc.com> darryl@ism780c.UUCP (Darryl Richman) writes: ">About the only problem I've noticed with it is that the ">system doesn't recgnize the drive if you boot without a disk in it. "If you keep the cdev SCSI Tools by Paul Mercer in your system folder, "you can mount a disk at anytime after booting. I've tried SCSI Tools, and although the drive's access light blinks, it does not mount. SCSI Tools does see the unit on the bus, it just can't seem to mount it. --Darryl Richman -- Copyright (c) 1989 Darryl Richman The views expressed are the author's alone darryl@ism780c.isc.com INTERACTIVE Systems Corp.-A Kodak Company "For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken
ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith) (03/09/89)
It can't mount it because mounting a disk requires that there be a driver in memory. I suspect that SCSI Tools is meant to remount disks that have accidently been unmounted. The people who supplied the software for your drive should have also supplied an INIT that you can place in the System folder of your non-removable drive. The INIT should do the following: 1. Check the SCSI bus for removable drives 2. For each one found, see if there is a driver in memory for that drive 3. If there is, continue. If there is not, then load one. If, for some reason, they failed to provide such an INIT, try to find one from someone who has a different brand of removable drive that also uses the SyQuest drive. As long as you are not partitioning your cartridges, it should work. Another thing you can do is write a program that you can run when you stick a disk in. This program would grab the driver from the disk and load it into memory and start it. This program would be pretty easy to write, and would give you a good excuse to try one of those compilers you bought two years ago ( note to those who do not know Darryl: he bought MPW about two years ago, and so far has only used it to write shell scripts ). Tim Smith
jfm@ruddles.sprl.umich.edu.engin.umich.edu (John F. Mansfield) (03/10/89)
In article <15576@cup.portal.com> ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith) writes: >It can't mount it because mounting a disk requires that there be >a driver in memory. I suspect that SCSI Tools is meant to >remount disks that have accidently been unmounted. > >The people who supplied the software for your drive should have >also supplied an INIT that you can place in the System folder >of your non-removable drive. If you buy a Mass Micro Data Pak, it comes preformatted with utility software and the DataPak init that lets you treat the drive as a giant floppy, i.e. you can drag the icon to the trash to dismount it and then you can eject it. I do not have any special inits in my system folder and SCSI tools does its stuff. The driver is on the disk, if my memory serves me correctly. Howvever if you think you need thes inits then they should be on the drive when you get it and also Mass Micro include a floppy utility disk. I can imagine them forgetting to either format the drive or insert the floppy but I iamgine that have both missing is a rare occurence. Here I am talking about the cartridge as "the drive" when you buy the motor base, it comes with one cartridge and floppy. John Mansfield North Campus Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory 2455 Hayward, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2143. 313-936-3352 Internet: jfm@ruddles.sprl.umich.edu or john_mansfield.um.cc.umich.edu