Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!blake!gwangung
From: gwangung@blake.acs.washington.edu (Roger Tang)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Removable "HD"s -- are they worth it?
Message-ID: <3000@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Date: 28 Jul 89 22:18:52 GMT
References: <9095@venera.isi.edu>
Reply-To: gwangung@blake.acs.washington.edu (Roger Tang)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 39
Distribution:

In article <9095@venera.isi.edu> jas@ISI.EDU (Jeff Sullivan) writes:
>I'm think9ng about looking into one of those ~45Meg removable nedia
>"hard" drives.  I was wondering if anyone has experience or heard
>anything about them.  They seem liake a great solution to
>backup/second HD problem.
>
>Any comments?  Also, access time looks pretty good on the Mass Micro
>one.  About 23ms if memory serves.

	ALL of the removable cartridge hard drives have the same acces
times:  25 ms.  That's because all of them are made by the same company,
Syquest.  That means, you can just about interchange cartridges between
different makers.

	They're essentially all the same, but the difference lies in the
formatting software and utilities (i.e., the goodies) the manufacturers
throw in.  For example, Mass Micro throws in a whole bunch of stuff that
makes it highly attractive.  In contrast, Microtech markets a device that
only has X-Trees and DS backup, neither of which I'm impressed with.  However,
they sell their drives for about $500-800 less, more if you have an
amenable dealer (mine sold me a Microtech for $899)(This was at THE MAC STORE
in Seattle, 206/447-9611; they claim they do mail order.  All I know is that
I'm pretty satisfied so far with my drive).

	I'm using mine as a primary storage device currently.  This is working
out fairly well for the time being, though I haven't had it for too long.
THey're are definitely ideal as a second or backup HD, and my experience
seems to say that they don't do too badly as a primary.

	By the way, I've heard that the PLI turbo cache (which PLI sells
separately) can lower access times down to 12 ms.  I'm not sure how much
to believe the time, but I can believe that the PLI software can speed up
the drive even more.


-- 
Roger Tang
Rest Home for Ex-Asian American Radical Pinko Commie Punks
gwangung@blake.acs.washington.edu