pv9y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (05/01/91)
I'm thinking about getting a removable cartridge drive and was
wondering what people thought about the Bernoulli drives from Iomega.
I've read all the articles in the magazines and am not concerned with
compatibility with other people since I don't transfer large files.
I'm more concerned with reliability and general purpose use - backups,
specialized volumes (ie I want a publishing disk with all my fonts and
PageMaker and all that stuff that clutters my hard disk for the few
times a month that I use it). Cost is not a super big deal - I'd like
to pay as little as possible, but I'm willing to pay to get a reliable
system - I hate disk errors, particularly on large volumes.
So if you've used a Bernoulli drive, send me mail and let me know what
you think. I'll summarize if there are enough responses and if it's
worth it, I'll even write an article for TidBITS on the subject.
Many thanks!
-Adam
--
Adam C. Engst (best) ace@tidbits.tcnet.ithaca.ny.us
(also) ace@tidbits.uucp
(if all else fails) pv9y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------
Editor of TidBITS, the weekly electronic Macintosh news journalemmayche@dhw68k.cts.com (Mark Hartman) (05/06/91)
Yes, indeed, I use a Bernoulli drive.
The Bernoulli drive is slightly more expensive, a bit noisier in operation,
and a lot heavier than the SyQuest drives. This is the sum total of the
downside.
On the upside: the driver (named " Driver", with conspicuous lack of
imagination), is nice and tight at 11.5K, and also handles their M-O drive
without additional drivers. I run a dual drive box, and the driver is smart
enough to use the "drive" SCSI feature instead of taking up two SCSI slots.
It's just as fast - and sometimes faster - than the SyQuest. It's based on
what I would call (but Iomega does not, for obvious reasons) crash-proof
design. You can get the cartridges off-the-shelf for about $82 each in a
3-pack, which is affordable enough in my book. The box is passively
terminated, meaning it doesn't have to be switched on to keep your SCSI chain
in working order; newer boxes have switch-selectable termination. The SCSI
ID is easy to set if you're trying to do so, difficult to do accidently.
At the last: despite what the SyQuest vendors tell you about "I throw my
cartridge across the room, bank it off three walls, and sometimes get it
into my briefcase, but sometimes it falls down into the dungeon where wild
boars maul it - and it still comes out fine!", I have had too many times
where a removeable disk cartridge has received just a bit too much knocking
about, or has a bit too much contamination inside - and blam! both the
cartridge AND THE DRIVE are in need of major repair, if not replacement.
With the Bernoulli cartridges, at least the heads are kept safe, and it's
unlikely that contamination will cause a head crash.
Yes, the SyQuests are cheaper, and more Mac people have them. However, with
the much longer MTBF and the advantages above, I'll stick with the Bernoulli
drives. (I drive a Honda instead of a GM product, too - same reasoning.)
--
Mark Hartman, N6BMO "What are you just standing there for? Where
Applelink: N1083 or BINARY.TREE do you think you are, DIS-ney World??"
Internet: emmayche@dhw68k.cts.com -- General Knowledge, from
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