rspangle@jarthur.claremont.edu (Froot Loop) (01/11/91)
I have a 386/16 MHz PC-clone with an ISA bus. I do run MS Windows 3.0 and QEMM 5.1. I want to put a 44 MB SyQuest removable hard drive on it. I talked to John at Hard Drives International today, and he recommended an Allways (sp.) card, claiming that the SyQuest drive had problems with the Adaptec 1542 cards (can you comment on this, Roy?) I found out that the Allways card is supposed to be a 16-bit card capable of 10 Mbit/sec transfer rates. So my questions are: * Does anyone have experience with this combination of hardware? How will the system cope with switching disks? * How compatible is the Allways card with other hard drives and devices? Am I correct in assuming it's a bus master? Does it require a driver? Will it remap cylinders/heads so that I can use large (>300MB) drives with it? How does it compare to the Adaptec cards in terms of performance and support? (I know there are a few ftp sites with Adaptec stuff.) * Is $638 a good price for the combo (the SyQuest would be internal, comes with no disks)? I think John quoted me a price of $449 on the bare internal drive with no controller or disks. * Did anyone ever figure out how to swap removable disks between a Mac and a PC? (My roommate already has a SyQuest and a Mac II) Please reply by email to rspangle@jarthur.claremont.edu I'll summarize the responses in a week or two.
plim@hpsgwp.sgp.hp.com (Peter Lim) (01/14/91)
/ rspangle@jarthur.claremont.edu (Froot Loop) / 5:57 pm Jan 11, 1991 / write:
$ I talked to John at Hard Drives International today, and he recommended an
$ Allways (sp.) card, claiming that the SyQuest drive had problems with the
$ Adaptec 1542 cards (can you comment on this, Roy?) I found out that the
$ Allways card is supposed to be a 16-bit card capable of 10 Mbit/sec transfer
$ rates.
$
Haven't try Adaptec card, so can't comment. Heard that there are problem
with Windows 3.0 because Adaptec does some kind of bus mastering ...
I use Always IN-2000 card with a SyQuest drive, a Micropolis 1684 and
an Archive Viper 150 MB tape drive. I also has an ESDI drive as the
primary drive. The whole thing hangs together very nicely under DOS and
Windows 3.0.
$ So my questions are:
$
$ * Does anyone have experience with this combination of hardware? How will
$ the system cope with switching disks?
$
Switching disk is an interesting problem. When I only has the ESDI drive
and the SyQuest drive, I did not use the device driver supplied by SyQuest.
So, DOS thinks that the SyQuest is a plain fixed drive. I run SUPERPCK
disk cache on the SyQuest against warning by SyQuest Inc. Which certainly
confuse things a little more. All I had to do was to FLUSH the cache
before removing the catridge and run CHKDSK on the SyQuest drives after
inserting the new catridge. This works well until I forgot to FLUSH the
cache once and lost the data on the newly inserted catridge when my machine
writes to the new machine using the old directory information.
Now that I have added a new SCSI hard disk (LUN 0), the SyQuest (LUN 1)
becomes invisible when DOS fires up. I need to install the SyQuest driver.
At the time I do it (about August, 1990), the released version of SyQuest
driver did not work with the IN-2000 -- SyQuest combo. I got a beta version
of the driver from Always and it works. With the driver installed, DOS is
aware that the SyQuest drive is removable and do the proper checking when
I change catridge.
$ * How compatible is the Allways card with other hard drives and devices? Am
$ I correct in assuming it's a bus master? Does it require a driver? Will it
$ remap cylinders/heads so that I can use large (>300MB) drives with it? How
$ does it compare to the Adaptec cards in terms of performance and support?
$ (I know there are a few ftp sites with Adaptec stuff.)
$
The Always IN-2000 remaps all SCSI drive into 64 heads (or 60 ??) so that
you get 1 MB per cylinder. Assuming DOS's 1024 cylinder limit, you should
be able to get about 1 GB per drive. Tested -- it works with 340 MB Micropolis
1684. Performance wise, it is not a screamer. About 1 MByte per second;
doesn't use DMA at all (which avoids lots of compatibility problems).
Support for UNIX might be a bit weak here (that's where Adaptec controller
is supposed to fly). But okay for DOS.
$ * Is $638 a good price for the combo (the SyQuest would be internal, comes
$ with no disks)? I think John quoted me a price of $449 on the bare internal
$ drive with no controller or disks.
$
When I bought the thing in May 1990, the price was about the same. And it
seems like HDI has one of the best price.
$ * Did anyone ever figure out how to swap removable disks between a Mac and
$ a PC? (My roommate already has a SyQuest and a Mac II)
$
My friend who has a Mac with SyQuest just took my PC SyQuest disk and tried
it. According to him, he can't get the Mac to figure out the info in the
PC SyQuest disk. he was not very explicit, but I think his Mac was able
to read something of the PC SyQuest disk ---- just can't figure out the
data read.
Have fun.
Regards, . .. ... .- -> -->## Life is fast enough as it is ........
Peter Lim. ## .... DON'T PUSH IT !! >>>-------,
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Tel: (065)-279-2289 (ICDS, ICS) |
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#include <standard_disclaimer.hpp>parke@star.enet.dec.com (Bill Parke) (01/15/91)
I just ordered a SyQuest with AllWays controller from HDI for $499. This includes a cartridge (standard issue if you buy the SyQuest unless the dealer is removing them). -- Bill Parke parke%star.enet.dec@decwrl.dec.com VMS Development decwrl!star.enet.dec.com!parke Digital Equipment Corp parke@star.enet.dec.com 110 Spit Brook Road ZK01-1/F22, Nashua NH 03063 The views expressed are my own.
chuck@umbc5.umbc.edu (Chuck Rickard; ACS (UGRAD)) (01/15/91)
In an article parke@star.enet.dec.com (Bill Parke) writes: >I just ordered a SyQuest with AllWays controller from HDI for $499. >This includes a cartridge (standard issue if you buy the SyQuest unless >the dealer is removing them). All Syquest drives are shipped WITHOUT cartridges! In fact, when they first came out, the dealers had a hard enough time getting cartridges for the units they were selling. Everyone was ordering extras and Syquest couldn't keep up with the demand. Chuck Rickard (chuck@umbc5.umbc.edu)
ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG) (01/16/91)
From article <4853@umbc3.UMBC.EDU>, by chuck@umbc5.umbc.edu (Chuck Rickard; ACS (UGRAD)): > In an article parke@star.enet.dec.com (Bill Parke) writes: > >>I just ordered a SyQuest with AllWays controller from HDI for $499. >>This includes a cartridge (standard issue if you buy the SyQuest unless >>the dealer is removing them). > > All Syquest drives are shipped WITHOUT cartridges! In fact, when they first > came out, the dealers had a hard enough time getting cartridges for the units > they were selling. Everyone was ordering extras and Syquest couldn't keep > up with the demand. Yes, the cartridge and base unit does comes in separate boxes, but HDI does sell a package with base unit and 1 cartridge. I got it a few months ago.
chandler@beagle.UUCP (Jim Chandler) (01/16/91)
In article <10301@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>, rspangle@jarthur.claremont.edu (Froot Loop) writes: > I want to put a 44 MB SyQuest removable hard drive on it. > * Does anyone have experience with this combination of hardware? How will > the system cope with switching disks? > > * Is $638 a good price for the combo (the SyQuest would be internal, comes > with no disks)? I think John quoted me a price of $449 on the bare internal > drive with no controller or disks. > > Please reply by email to rspangle@jarthur.claremont.edu I am using an Adaptec 1542A with a SyQuest 555 and have have no problems with it either under ESIX or under DOS. SyQuest has drivers for DOS so that it recognizes the removable media but I have never used it. I use the Syquest to back up my 330M drive and it works fairly well. Kind of like swapping floppies but 44 M at a time. I got mine from HDI about 5 months ago and paid about that. Good luck with it. -- Jim Chandler asuvax!xroads!beagle!chandler chandler@beagle.uucp
ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG) (01/19/91)
From article <412@beagle.UUCP>, by chandler@beagle.UUCP (Jim Chandler): > I am using an Adaptec 1542A with a SyQuest 555 and have have no problems with > it either under ESIX or under DOS. SyQuest has drivers for DOS so that it > recognizes the removable media but I have never used it. I use the Syquest > to back up my 330M drive and it works fairly well. Kind of like swapping > floppies but 44 M at a time. I got mine from HDI about 5 months ago and paid > about that. Good luck with it. My SyQuest is using the ST01 SCSI controller that comes with the SyQuest. The cable seems to indicate that I can put another SCSI device on the same board. Could I just get any old SCSI fixed hard disk and pop it onto the ST01? I mean, like a cheap $300 80MB seagate SCSI hard disk? Also, could the SyQuest cartridge be used on the same based units but of different controller? Like can my cartridge written with the ST01 controller be read by Chandler's Adaptec 1542A controller, even though the drive based unit is the same type (I assumed)? Has any SyQuest user shipped their cartridges thru regular UPS? How much physical cushioning materials do you need? Anybody tried the airport X-ray machine? I divided my SyQuest into 22MB/22MB drives, is there any way to actually make it a 44MB drive using DOS 3.3? I am using the driver provided by SyQuest. Thanks (x4) in advance. E. Teng Ong (ong@d.cs.okstate.edu)
jh5y+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jordan Powell Hargrave) (01/22/91)
Does anyone know if the SyQuest drive can be installed vertically? Most hard drives can be installed this way without problems (I've had my system on it's side for over a year with no problems.) I just added a SyQuest drive to my system and wanted to make sure it would be safe to keep it in this orientation (currently I have it horizontal, I'd like to reclaim the desk space. ;->) Also, has anyone had any problems with the drive? Norton has been giving me problems (NDD won't run at all). The drive also crashed several times after I first installed it (luckily I was able to restore most of it), though I have not had any problems lately. I don't know if this is because I have a RLL drive in my system (Seagate 138-R, used as the primary drive, with an Adaptec HDD/FDD RLL controller, the SyQuest uses a ST-01 SCSI controller) Hopefully these problems can be easily solved, I'd hate to have to return the drive. (Although HDI did drop the price right after I ordered it. :-< ) Jordan Hargrave Carnegie Mellon University