wjb@cogsci.cog.jhu.edu (William J. Bogstad) (01/04/91)
The subject is the question. Are there any tape drives available in the PC marketplace which can run off of your parallel printer port? There seem to be many network adapters and now floppy and hard disks, but I have never heard of a tape drive. Such a device would be a great help to managers of micros who don't have networks. Just carry the drive from office to office plug the power cord into the wall socket and the data cable onto the printer port. It would seem to have great market potential to me. I would even consider an external tape drive which used a VERY inexpensive adapter. Like, maybe $30-40 each. I would want to pay $350-500 dollars for the drive itself, which should hold at least 60 Megabytes uncompressed. Thanks, Bill Bogstad
billf@progress.COM (Bill Ferro) (01/05/91)
wjb@cogsci.cog.jhu.edu (William J. Bogstad) writes: > The subject is the question. Are there any tape drives available in >the PC marketplace which can run off of your parallel printer port? There is a startup company called Valitek located in Hadley, MA. Phone is (413) 586-7408. Their drive runs off of serial or parallel port. Not sure of the price. Also not sure if they sell direct or if you have to go through distribution. Valitek has been advertising for some time in the back pages of PC-WEEK and I believe PC-MAG. I haven't actually used the drive so I have no other opinions..... -bf -- Bill Ferro UUCP: mit-eddie!progress!billf Progress Software Corp. Internet: billf@progress.com 5 Oak Park Bedford, MA 01730
gettys@regent.enet.dec.com (Bob Gettys N1BRM) (01/05/91)
In article <03.Jan.91.191320.21@cogsci.cog.jhu.edu>, wjb@cogsci.cog.jhu.edu (William J. Bogstad) writes... > > The subject is the question. Are there any tape drives available in >the PC marketplace which can run off of your parallel printer port? There >seem to be many network adapters and now floppy and hard disks, but I have >never heard of a tape drive. Such a device would be a great help to >managers of micros who don't have networks. Just carry the drive from >office to office plug the power cord into the wall socket and the data cable >onto the printer port. It would seem to have great market potential to me. >I would even consider an external tape drive which used a VERY inexpensive >adapter. Like, maybe $30-40 each. I would want to pay $350-500 dollars for >the drive itself, which should hold at least 60 Megabytes uncompressed. > > Thanks, > Bill Bogstad The closest I have seen to this is a Colorado Jumbo tape drive that can be either internal or external. If you buy one external version (about $299 for the drive plus about $125 for the external kit) you will have a drive that is movable to other machines by adding a controller card to each of the other machines (the external kit comes with the one for the first machine). These cards run about $79 (a bit more than you wanted, but not too far). If you were buying a bunch, you might even be able to get the price down closer to what you wanted. These take an extended DC2000XL tape which claims 60 meg uncompressed. It comes with its own software which will also compress about 30-40% (they claim more) and it is also supported by such things as PC Tools Deluxe V6. /s/ Bob