Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!ucrmath!hubbell!rhyde
From: rhyde@hubbell.ucr.edu (randy hyde)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Seeking opinions on 45MB removables
Message-ID: <15260@ucrmath.ucr.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 91 01:00:18 GMT
References: <5253@ryn.mro4.dec.com>
Sender: news@ucrmath.ucr.edu
Reply-To: rhyde@hubbell.ucr.edu (randy hyde)
Lines: 29

I bought one of the 88mb removables for $900, here's my experiences:

o It mounts and dismounts like a floppy.
o You can boot off it (sometimes I've had problems with this, about one out of
   four times it unmounts when you"restart", but this may be a CMS driver
   problem)
o Like most SCSI devices, if the thing isn't powered up while you're using
   your mac, SCSI chokes.  There may be ways around this, I've never bothered
   looking for a solution (i.e., request for ways around this from those
   smarter than I am).
o The INITs and CDEVs are the things that make is possible for the system to
   automatically mount and dismount the cartridge.  They do other things too,
   but mounting and dismounting are the biggies to me.
o < $500.  There are 44mb drives in this range, the 88mb drives are still
   expensive.  If you can get by with 44megs for a while, go ahead and buy
   the 44mb drive now.  In a couple of years the 88mbyte drives will be around
   $500.  For $100 more than I paid, you could have both (in a couple of
years).
   OTOH, I boot sys 7 from the syquest and I've left sys 6 on my internal drive
   (600 megs).  I couldn't use sys 7 from a 44 mbyte cartridge given the amount
   of stuff I have on the sys 7 disk.

Love/Hate???  I don't do either.  The removable works for me because I need a
place to put 100's of megs of clip art, data files, etc., which I need
infrequent
but fast access to (my DAT is too slow).  The Syquest works fine for this.
It also provides a good mechanism which allows me to move up to sys 7 slowly
while waiting for software upgrades from everyone.
*** Randy Hyde