fiver@cup.portal.com (Kevin Michael Vail) (09/13/90)
I *know* this has probably been just discussed, but I'm just now back on the net (sort of) and missed it... I need information on removable hard drives (Syquest or the GCC Ultradrive 50R) and would appreciate E-mail on the following questions: How quiet are they? How reliable? Can you switch cartridges without shutting down and rebooting? Can you startup from one, for that matter? How difficult is it to copy files from one to another if you only have one drive? Are they fast enough for general use? Thanks to anyone who has information on this and is willing to spend the time to E-mail to one of the ddresses below. Kevin Vail fiver@cup.portal.com uunet!iti!kvail "Implementation is the sincerest form of flattery."
rad@genco.uucp (Bob Daniel) (09/13/90)
In article <33829@cup.portal.com> fiver@cup.portal.com (Kevin Michael Vail) writes: > >How quiet are they? I have an APS SyQuest and is makes a little more noise than say a Quantum but is much more quiet than an old Dataframe I have that sounds like a popcorn machine. > How reliable? I have only had it 3 months, have 4 cartridges and have had no problems. I decided to get one after a quite a few people discussing it on GEnie were satisfied with it. Only one of at least a dozen said he had to reformat a cartridge (1 of 11 cartridges). >Can you switch cartridges without >shutting down and rebooting? Yes! It works very similar to a floppy. Ocassionally it may not mount but there is an FKEY called "Mount'Em" which allows you to mount any SCSI device available. >Can you startup from one, for that matter? Yes, but you won't be able to switch cartridges without it asking for the cartidge containing the system. Not a good idea to use it this way. >How difficult is it to copy files from one to another if you only have one >drive? You don't want a removeable as your primary drive! It should be a secondary drive. Copying files between cartridges is possible but not fun. >Are they fast enough for general use? My SyQuest has 20ms access. Running SCSI Evaluator, it showed 23ms (avg) in comparison to a Quantum that showed 27ms (and claimed to have 12ms average access). The speed and access is definitely acceptable for a removeable. In general I have been very happy with it and most everyone I know is glad they have one.
kurtzman@pollux.usc.edu (Stephen Kurtzman) (09/16/90)
In article <37@genco.uucp> rad@genco. (Bob Daniel) writes: >I have an APS SyQuest ... I have an Ehman Syquest removeable. >>Can you switch cartridges without >>shutting down and rebooting? >Yes! It works very similar to a floppy. Ocassionally it may not mount >but there is an FKEY called "Mount'Em" which allows you to mount any SCSI >device available. The Ehman also comes with an init that allows the cartridge to be treated as a floppy. >>Are they fast enough for general use? >My SyQuest has 20ms access. Running SCSI Evaluator, it showed 23ms (avg) in >comparison to a Quantum that showed 27ms (and claimed to have 12ms average >access). The speed and access is definitely acceptable for a removeable. Using MacTools Optimizer to time the speed of accesses for the disks I have on my SE/30, I get the following: (Apple) Miniscrib M8425 20MB internal: 53.33 ms/seek avg. (POWERDrive) Seagate ST296N 80MB external: 22.78 ms/seek avg. (Ehman) Syquest SQ555 44MB external: 10.00 ms/seek avg. Even without running a program to analyze the disk speeds, you can tell that the Syquest is faster than the other disks. -- ----- Stephen Kurtzman | "where desire writhed there stands a stone kurtzman@pollux.usc.edu | the change was sudden and complete" | -- Maggie Roche