yylu@math.harvard.edu (Ya Yan Lu) (12/18/90)
Hi,
I am considering to buy a SyQuest removable hard disk. But I
am not sure how reliable it is. Furthermore, I do not even have a hard
disk at the moment. Is it suitable to use this kind of removalbe disk as
my primary hard disk? Meanwhile, it there much quality difference between
the SyQuest disks that different company sell? If you have any experinece
on that, I would appreciate you help. Thanks in advance.
--
*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*
Ya Yan Lu Office: (617)495-5274 Home: (617)547-2285
e-mail: yylu@harvard.edu, yylu@harvard.bitnet
*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*friedman@mbcl.rutgers.edu (12/21/90)
The lab I work in has had an Infinity Turbo 40 PLI Syquest for approx. 9 months. It has been more reliable than our Rodime 100 hard drive. We find it quite useful for storing applications and documents. There are two other Syquest drives in the building, one a Power User, the other I can't recall the make. Neither has given any problems to its users. Can it be used in place of a hard disk? I don't think so. All three require a driver/INIT or CDEV be installed in your system folder. You could use a floppy for the startup and then maybe if your Syquest has a system folder on it you could switch to the Syquest. As for disks, we have only purchased, through MacTel, the Syquest Technologies cartridge. These have run about $72. As we store experimental data on the disks, we would be leery to buy cheaper, less reliable disks. Good luck Rich Friedman@mbcl.rutgers.edu
peirce@outpost.UUCP (Michael Peirce) (12/24/90)
In article <226700011@wolman>, barry@wolman.prime.com writes: > > > Can a Syquest be used instead of a hard drive? > > I assume what you're really asking is if you can boot the Mac from the > Syquest. The answer is Yes, assuming > > 1. There's no internal hard drive, or the internal hard drive doesn't have > a valid system folder. Ah, this is a bit too restrictive. I boot off my SyQuest drives all the time and I have internal hard disks on all my machines. I just use the Startup Device control panel to select the drive and reboot. No problems. This is with both a Mass MicroSystems Syquest drive as well as the no name one I have (it also worked with the PLI I used to use at Claris). I setup cartridges with special systems, like system 7 or a development disk I can take with me (know system, MPW, Jasik's debugger, etc). I know lots of people who boot off their sysquest drives. -- michael -- Michael Peirce -- {apple,decwrl}!claris!outpost!peirce -- Peirce Software -- Suite 301, 719 Hibiscus Place -- Macintosh Programming -- San Jose, California 95117 -- & Consulting -- (408) 244-6554, AppleLink: PEIRCE
barry@wolman.prime.com (12/24/90)
Can a Syquest be used instead of a hard drive?
I assume what you're really asking is if you can boot the Mac from the
Syquest. The answer is Yes, assuming
1. There's no internal hard drive, or the internal hard drive doesn't have
a valid system folder.
2. There's a valid system folder on the Syquest.
3. There's no external hard drive with a valid system folder and a lower
SCSI address than the Syquest drive.
4. The Syquest contains the proper cartridge when you boot the Mac.
When my internal hard drive failed a year ago, I booted and ran off the
Syquest while I was waiting for the replacement hard drive. Fortunately,
I had been using DiskFit 1.5 to backup from the hard drive to the Syquest,
so the Syquest was a nearly up to date image of the internal hard drive.
When the replacement hard drive was installed, I did a "backup" from the
Syquest onto the new internal drive and generated a copy of what was on
the Syquest. I then went back to using the Syquest as a backup, rather
than a boot device.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry Wolman | barry@s66.prime.com
Principal Technical Consultant | 500 Old Connecticut Path
Prime Computer | Framingham, MA 01701
| 508/620-2800, ext. 1100
------------------------------------------------------------------------rich@sdchemf (Richard Kanner) (12/27/90)
I have been able to boot from my SyQuest drive with an internal hard drive that had a system by doing a cold start on my mac II with the SyQuest already spinning. Apparently, the mac does a SCSI check and my internal (quantum 105, Gigasoft fomatting from Third Wave computing ) is not ready to boot and goes to the SyQuest. I do not know if the SCSI addresses have anything to do with this I have not tested this, I just know it works. The SyQuest is at 4 and the internal is at 6. The SyQuest is an APS drive but I have boot from cartridges that were formated using DPI software as well. R. Kanner UCSD Chem.
hammen@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Robert Hammen) (12/29/90)
In article <956@chem.ucsd.EDU> rich@sdchemf (Richard Kanner) writes: >Apparently, the mac does a >SCSI check and my internal (quantum 105, Gigasoft fomatting >from Third Wave computing ) is not ready to boot and >goes to the SyQuest. I do not know if the SCSI addresses have >anything to do with this I have not tested this, I just know it >works. The SyQuest is at 4 and the internal >is at 6. If you set the SCSI ID of your internal hard drive to 0 (zero), the Mac will wait for the drive to spin up so it can boot from the drive. I have seen a program supplied by APS that lets you adjust the amount of time the Mac will wait for an internal drive. On the subject of booting from SyQuests. Yes, this is possible, provided the cartridge has spun up and is on-line when the Mac is ready to boot. No INITs are required. As a matter of fact, you really don't need to install an INIT for your SyQyest cartridge to show up on the desktop, providing it is up to speed when the Mac boots. Even if it's not, use something like SCSI Probe or the MountEm FKEY in order to mount the drive. Once the SCSI driver has been loaded, any other cartridges that are inserted should mount OK. On the subject of SyQuest reliability: yep, there have been some problems. My own personal PLI drive just bit the dust after two years of reliable service (I take it with me everywhere - it's made several trips to both coasts, as well as back and forth to work in the car a number of times). There have been more problems with cartridges and bad blocks than with actual drive mechanisms failing, in my opinion. I've handled literally hundreds of SyQuest cartridges, and have had two of them "go bad" (they developed so many bad blocks that they couldn't be reformatted). I've only had bad blocks on one other cartridge, but backing up and reformatting solved the problem. I've found that the Software Architects formatting software (used by Microtech and Ehman, among others) is about the best around. What's really great is that their SCSI driver will read cartridges formatted with other software (PLI, Mass Micro, Silver Lining, etc.). The cartridges are interchangeable, but in order to read a cartridge formatted with Vendor B's software, you need to reboot with it in the drive, and disable any mounting INITs you may have, because the SCSI drivers are not necessarily compatible between drive vendors. I make sure to treat my cartridges carefully - store them vertically, ALWAYS in their protective cartridge when not in the drive. One of the worst things I see people do is unmount (spin down) a cartridge, but leave it in the drive with the shutter open and the platter not spinning. That's a good way to let dust build up inside the cartridge (so is smoking, BTW). Also, never move the drive with a cartridge in it, spinning or not... Sorry for the rambling nature of this post. Just passing on some advice... Robert Hammen Beyond Technology, Inc. (formerly Screaming Color, Inc.) hammen@ddsw1.mcs.com 70701.2104@compuserve.com GEnie: R.HAMMEN