doherty@Alliant.COM (Dave Doherty) (11/29/88)
Well, here is the summary of responses with the original question at the
top. I think I'm going to get the Mass Micro unit. Anyone have a good (big
discount) place to buy this unit. - How about a good source for the
cartridges? - Thanks again...
Path: alliant!doherty
From: doherty@Alliant.COM (Dave Doherty)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: 40+ MB REMOVABLE CARTRIDGE DRIVES - How are they???
Keywords: removable cartridge drives
Date: 19 Nov 88 00:49:12 GMT
Organization: Alliant Computer Systems, Littleton, MA
I'm about to purchase on of those 40+ removable cartridge drives for my
MacII and would like to here from those that know - Which one should I get
(or not get) Please let me know - I will summarize for everyone if the
response is good.
Thanks in advance.
--
UUCP: ...!{linus | mit-eddie}!alliant!doherty
ARPA: doherty@Alliant.COM
Dave Doherty (617) 486-1326
Alliant Computer Systems Corporation One Monarch Drive, Littleton, MA 01460
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From mit-eddie!ruddles.sprl.umich.edu!jfm Sun Nov 20 18:34:11 1988
From: jfm@ruddles.sprl.umich.edu
Date: Sun 20 Nov EST 1988 18:10
Subject: Re: 40+ MB REMOVABLE CARTRIDGE DRIVES - How are they???
Organization: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
I like my Mass Micro Data Pak, I have a single drive but think I should have bought the twin pack. Aside from that and the fact that the spindle motor went west in less than a month on the first unit we got, I would recommend
the drive highly. Formatting is very slow but the cartridges come pre
formatted so this is only a problem if you reformat to get rid of bad blocks
which was necessay in one of the 8 cartridges I bought. Partition software crashes the mac on a MacII with system 6.0.2 and I have not received a
satisfactory response from Mass Micro on that yet. Doesnt work with A/UX.
In spite of the seeming negative comments Iwould recommend the drive.
--
John Mansfield, North Campus Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory,
2455 Hayward, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2143. Ph: (313)-936-3352.
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From merk!spdcc!harvard!ames!claris!drc Mon Nov 21 13:21:53 1988
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 88 07:10:48 PST
From: harvard!ames!claris!drc (Dennis Cohen)
Organization: Claris Corporation, Mountain View CA
Well, I can't speak about other brands. Friends recommended the MassMicro
DataPak to me and that's what I bought. It has worked great so far (a couple
of months), but I've only filled two cartridges so far.
Dennis Cohen
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From mit-eddie!cs.utexas.edu!knapp Mon Nov 21 18:41:32 1988
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 88 17:29:36 CST
From: knapp@cs.utexas.edu
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
I have been using a MassMicro DataPak for more than three months now.
I am more than staisfies with price and quality. It is convenient,
fast and reliable.
I bought mine from Don Mayer (800) 541-2318. His company is called
Brain Warez, and he has very good prices. Also, Mass Micro gives
educational discounts to Universities.
Edgar
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Path: alliant!merk!spdcc!bloom-beacon!apple!bionet!agate!eos!ames!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!mrmarx!sam
From: sam@mrmarx.UUCP (Steve Magnell)
Date: 19 Nov 88 22:41:29 GMT
Organization: Decision Software Co, Cambridge, MA
On the other hand, I have just returned my second Data-Pak drive. The
first one corrupted two cartridges so badly that they could not even
be reformatted. The second drive would build up errors over time.
That is, I would be using the drive and a file would become
unreadable. If the Data-Pak Utility's test disk option was run it
would show errors. The number of errors would continually increase
over time. If the disk was reformatted, it would show no errors, but
they would agian build up over time. The timeframe involved was about
a week between reformats.
Since I wanted to use the drive as a backup device and an alternate
drive, these errors were unacceptable. The technology seems a little
too unstable for my use.
It may have been the environment in which they were being used, an
non-air-condtioned office in the Virgin Islands (average temp 80
deg.F) that had open windows. It was, however, well within the
published operating specs for the device. It may work perfectly well
in the normal air-filtered and temperature controlled environment that
most offices maintain.
Steve Magnell
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Path: alliant!merk!spdcc!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!haven!purdue!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!munnari!murdu!ucsvc!mvax!lmichael
From: lmichael@melbcae.edu.au
Date: 21 Nov 88 20:53:51 GMT
I've just finished evaluating a 45 meg cartridge unit for the company I'm
working for. The unit is a Syquest SQ555 drive (same as the one mass micro
sells [they are manufactured by syquest]).
I've been using it now for about a month now as my main drive and have had no
problems. The other important factor involved with the drive is the software
driver. The one I'm using with the device is by Software Architects and works
well. It can handle cartridge changes properly. This is important if you need
to swap them without restarting.
Michael Veldman
Product Evaluation Engineer
Adaptive Pty Ltd
Melb. OZ.
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From: benn@asylum.sf.ca.us (Thomas Cox)
Date: 26 Nov 88 15:05:47 GMT
Organization: The Asylum; Belmont, CA
There is a nasty problem with high capacity, removable backup --
especially if you want to use the backup device as an extra drive as
well.
One example is the Bernoulli Box, which gives 20 meg per disk and uses
5 1/4 floppy media. It's fairly fast, and if you just write the backup
and don't use the disk again, it's reliable. BUT if you use it as an
alternative hard disk, you will be screwed, because the disks become
unusable after about six months' constant use.
Alternately there are the removable-disk hard disks mentioned above.
Another is the removable-drive Passport Plus from the people who
brought us the Hard Card (a PC product, and I forget the company
name.) The difference between these two is, in the first you remove
the hard disk platters, and in the second you remove the platters and
read/write heads both. (I had my only PassPort fail on me; I don't
recommend it very highly.)
If you don't want these options, then there are 80-meg-per-tape backup
drives from Irwin and a few others. I think the Irwin is reliable, as
long as you ONLY USE 3M or IRWIN tapes. Obviously, this method won't
work as an alternate drive; it's s-l-o-w, and most tapes won't even
mount on the Mac desktop (you have to use the backup software to
access the tapes).
And if you don't like these so far, then you can go with optical, or
floptical. Optical is like 400 meg per WORM disk, and of modest speed;
floptical is actually a hybrid that uses magnetic data storage and
optical servo head positioning on a floppy medium. Floptical is NOT
yet available, I believe.
Personally, I like to use a succession of cheap Jasmine 20 meg drives
as my replaceable disks... but then, I'm not at all well...
--
Thomas "Wombat" Cox
I have two hit points left, and we're winning anyway? I attack!
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--
UUCP: ...!{linus | mit-eddie}!alliant!doherty
ARPA: doherty@Alliant.COM
Dave Doherty (617) 486-1326
Alliant Computer Systems Corporation One Monarch Drive, Littleton, MA 01460