hovan@bgsuvax.UUCP (John Hovan) (09/20/88)
For all those looking for an external drive, check out the LaCie line of hard drives! I purchased a 70mb external about a week an a half ago, and I am very pleased. The drive came pre-formated (low level and high level) with a system and the silver lining utility installed. Additionally, LaCie packages a carrying case and the silver lining / silver server software and manual with their hard drives. I feel the drive is the best value for the money. ($899.00, or $917.00 with tax for 70mb is the best value for the money) The silver lining package is very nice and is similar to the Jasmine utilities. It allows you to set data transfer rates, passwords, volume sizes (40 different volumes can be created), auto-park (can be done manually or installed in the system to park on shut down or restart). Overall, I found the software top rate and easy to use. A few drawbacks I have found were the construction of the unit. It is not as industrial as the Jasmine, but I don't think it is a big factor since most people treat there equipment with some degree of civilized behavior. The second drawback was the technique LaCie chooses to set the scsi id. It is done with jumpers inside the case which makes it difficult to change the address on the fly. Thirdly, the manual is unclear about the re-partitioning of the drive. The manual made it sound possible to re-partition the system volume without re-initializing. However, this is not possible, but volumes other than the system volume can be re-partitioned without having to initialize. The 70mb drive is and Epson Mechanism. The 30mb they sell for $549 contains a seagate drive. Overall, I feel the drive is an economic alternative to the higher price, "name brand" drives. Perhaps the most interesting fact is that their 70mb is a 25ms drive compared to the Jasmine 70mb at 28ms at $100 more. John Hovan Computer Doctor Bowling Green State University Hardware Support hovan@andy.bgsu.edu N8JAA My ram is full...put your bits somewhere else.