ace@tidbits.UUCP (Adam C. Engst) (05/21/91)
I originally wrote: > 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 After seeing these responses I decided that the Bernoulli did not make as much sense for my needs as a cheap SyQuest ($479 with on cartridge from APS, cartridges $72 each) which I just got today. The Bernoulli mechanism seems more reliable (as evidenced by their demo, in which a running drive is repeatedly slammed on a table as a multimedia presentation plays from it), but the media doesn't seem to have the level of reliability over time that the company promises despite the superior technology. In additio n, if the drives are loud, that makes them less useful for everyday use, which I do need. And here are the responses: ------------------------ From: hoepfner (5/7/91) I read that the Bernoulli drives are better for backup and since they come up to speed faster, they are better for copying from one disk to another if you don't have a dual drive. I also read that the SyQuest are better for continuous operation. Remembering that the crash-proofness of the Bernoulli drives means that the medium is flexed as it passes the heads. I just have to wonder in continuous operation if this flexing will cause the magnetic media to flake off over time. As always, just my thoughts... +--------------------------+---------------------------------------+ / Patrick Hoepfner | NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center \ / America Online: PatrickH9 | Internet: hoepfner@heasfs.gsfc.nasa.gov \ +-----------------------------+------------------------------------------+ ====================================================================== From: Carl J.M. Alexander (5/3/91) Subject: Bernoullis; ROMs] Adam-- I was going to send you mail anyway, so I'll kill two birds with one stone. I use a Bernoulli -- when it works. For example, three days ago I reformatted two cartridges and moved a bunch of files over to them from my internal. Yesterday I wanted to look at one of those files. Unfortunately, the disk was unreadable & Norton didn't help. I haven't convinced the drive to work with System 7, either, but I've had better things to do than putting a lot of effort into that. I'm not a lot happier with Syquests, but at least you can format them with SilverLining. The recommendation I'm most frequently making to people who are interested in removable media these days is to wait for the flopticals to hit the market. I expect that technology to come out of the gate with fewer bugs than either the Syquests of the Bernoullis have now, partly because they've done the right thing by taking their time in getting to market, partly because ever since I heard about it I've considered the idea of combining optically encoded tracking with magnetically encoded data to be a really clever and elegant hack. Carl Alexander News Editor, The Active Window (Monthly Journal of BCS*Mac) cjeff@ghoti.lcs.mit.edu ====================================================================== From: David C. Black (5/2/91) Subject: I use Bernoulli I have a Bernoulli Boxx II 44 for Macintosh with 1 drive. Got it thru MacConnection. Its been very reliable, faster than expected, and a bit noisier than expected. I recommend it. Used on both Mac+ and IIsi with no problems. -- ___________________________________________________________________________ | David C. Black Electrical Engineer | | Tandem Computers Incorporated Guardian: SMTPGATE@AUSTIN(black@tzone) | | 14231 Tandem Blvd. Internet: black@mpd.tandem.com | |_Austin, Texas 78728-6699_________Phone: (512) 244-8321__________________| ====================================================================== From: johnston (5/2/91) Subject: RE: Do you use a Bernoulli drive? In article <1991May1.103028.4389@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>, you write... >I'm thinking about getting a removable cartridge drive and was >wondering what people thought about the Bernoulli drives from Iomega. In my experience, Bernoulli has no advantage. I have a Totem II from Bering. Bought before the introduction of the Syquest. So far I have had 3 cartridges out of 9 develop bad sectors then die. I have used the drive "aggressively" -- at least 16 hours per day for the past 3 years. If I had it to do again, I would buy a Syquest. My experience certainly does not support the Bernoulli "reliability" claim. I wouldn't even go Bernoulli if the price was the same. We have many syquests at work, and I have yet to hear a complaint. My $0.02. Bill (johnston@minnie.me.udel.edu) ====================================================================== From: ech (5/2/91) Subject: Re: Do you use a Bernoulli drive? Howdy, and a belated thanks for Tidbits...I at least browse it every week... I have a dual-44 Bernoulli on my Mac II; it's powered up most of the time, to supplement my 40M internal HD. For the most part I'm quite happy with it. The dual-drive is particularly convenient for backups, as you might imagine. One warning: both I and a friend have these; we each experienced a major failure on one drive during the first year of service. Iomega repaired the unit and had it back within a week in each case. When they offered a second year of warranty coverage for ~$130, I bought it...! In my case, one cartridge was totalled. It's noteworthy that Iomega replaced the totalled cartridge, and even tried to recover the data for me (they were not successful). I've long since gotten religion about frequent backups, so... Given the cheap Syquest options available these days, I'm not sure I'd go with Bernoulli again. Reliability with Bernoulli is probably better, but I baby my media anyway. At the time, Syquest technology was comparable in price, and I didn't like the exposed media... =Ned Horvath= ehorvath@attmail.com ====================================================================== From: Bradley A. West (5/2/91) Subject: RE: Do you use a Bernoulli drive? Adam, We hae a bernoulli drive connected to a PC and have used it extensively recently to move data from one PC with a 40Meg disk to our new 386 with a 330Meg. I would hate to have done it with floppies! Anyway, the Bernoulli works _great_! The only complaint I have is that it seems to be very loud. It's fine for backing up, and definitely great for transporting data among computers, but I'd hate to have the thing running all the time. Have you seen the article in May's MacWorld on removable media? They rank the Bernoulli technology very highly, but for cost-effectivenes prefer the SyQuest. Basically Bernoulli's are reliable and SyQuests definately aren't. Hope this is helpful! Brad ====================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adam C. Engst Editor of TidBITS, the weekly electronic Macintosh journal ace@tidbits.tcnet.ithaca.ny.us The best way to predict the future pv9y@crnlvax5, pv9y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu is to invent it. -Alan Kay