Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!bwdls61!bwdls58!mlord
From: mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: CMS 60/120MB tape drives
Message-ID: <5606@bwdls58.UUCP>
Date: 14 Feb 91 01:13:20 GMT
References: <26853@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Sender: mlord@bwdls58.UUCP
Reply-To: mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 35

In article <26853@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> jdb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian K. W. Hook) writes:
<
<    I am interested in the CMS 60MB tape drive (120MB w/compression)
<    and am wondering:
<       
<    A.  Since I have two floppies hooked up to an RLL controller right now,
<        do I need the external drive or do I need the special controller
<        card?

I have two floppies and a PERSTOR controller (and previously an MFM controller)
and I DO require the special card.  Also, I found the drive got too hot and 
ruined tapes when mounted internally.  I suppose my two hard drives might have
contributed to this some..  Get the external kit with board from Hard Drives
International.. really cheap pricing there.  

Don't put much faith into the "120MB" with compression.  I seldom got better
than 15% (but I have lots of ZIP files).  I now use PCTOOLS 6.0 with the tape
drive instead of the supplied software.  Much better.  Also gets 20% compression
instead of 15%.

<    B.  What are the benefits of the external drive?  I heard that they are
<        faster.

Nope.  Not unless you have a slow system (non-386) or perhaps maybe if you
buy the expensive card with the data compression chip (I wouldn't).

<    C.  Is the CMS 60MB any good?

Yes.  Much better than floppies, anyway.  I have not used other tape drives.

-- 
 ___Mark S. Lord__________________________________________
| ..uunet!bnrgate!mlord%bmerh724 | Climb Free Or Die (NH) |
| MLORD@BNR.CA   Ottawa, Ontario | Personal views only.   |
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