doherty@Alliant.COM (Dave Doherty) (11/19/88)
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.
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Dave Doherty (617) 486-1326
Alliant Computer Systems Corporation One Monarch Drive, Littleton, MA 01460rampil@cca.ucsf.edu (Ira Rampil) (11/20/88)
I have had two syquest cartridge drives and five cartridges for about two weeks now. I use them for carrying large amounts of data and code from office to home. They are fast and, so far, reliable. SCSI evaluator gives them a read time of about 3800 on my IIx (compare to a Rodime 144 internal = 7900). I bought my drives as private label from Software for Less in San Francisco for $1200. each, but all the vendors of these puppies use the Syquest 555 drives. The only difference between the vendors is the drivers/installation software they provide with the drive. In my opinion, the Mass Micro Driver is the best, it is fast and allows partitioning. The FWB driver that came with my drives is 25% slower (read times of 3000) and doesn't handle mount/ dismounts well (Sorry, Norman). Peripheral Land has a fancy cache but they "copy protect" their driver by only allowing it to work with their pre-formatted cartridges (which they charge an arm and leg for). I have only two complaints: 1) The cartridges are in very short supply; and 2) You are really supposed to keep the carts in their plastic boxes, but there is no reasonable way to label the damn boxes. At the prices Syquest is charging, you would think they could should a little consideration for people who have a couple carts. Ira Rampil Department of Anesthesia UCSF disclaimer: Just because I'm happy, doesn't mean I can't complain!
lmichael@melbcae.edu.au (11/22/88)
In article <2653@alliant.Alliant.COM>, doherty@Alliant.COM (Dave Doherty) writes: > 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. > 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. disclaimer: please ignore my grammar, I'm only the programmer. Michael Veldman Product Evaluation Engineer Adaptive Pty Ltd Melb. OZ.