Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!gdavis
From: gdavis@primate.wisc.edu (Gary Davis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Tape Backup Info Wanted
Message-ID: <1832@uakari.primate.wisc.edu>
Date: 6 Mar 90 20:15:31 GMT
References: <14249@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Sender: news@primate.wisc.edu
Reply-To: gdavis@primate.wisc.edu
Lines: 41

From article <14249@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, by zimerman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Jacob Ben-david Zimmerman):
> Hi all!  I am contemplating the purchase of a tape backup unit for my
> mac and am publicly asking if anyone has any information on pricing,
> standards, reliability, brands, etc. etc. that they would be willing to

I'm posting a reply rather than mailing it because it may be of
general interest.

There seems to be a consensus now that the TEAC tape drives are probably
the best deals. Both MacWorld and MacUser (in December 89, I think) came
to this conclusion. There are 60 and 150 meg units available, but the
price difference is getting so small that there may be no reason to
consider the 60. I saw a rumor somewhere that TEAC is coming out
with a much larger unit as well.

A while back a number of people on the net assembled their own 150 meg
TEACs and saved a fair amount of money. Everyone seems to be very
satisfied with their drives. The construction is very simple and
pretty much just requires screwdrivers.

I also assembled one and am delighted with it. I've written a fairly
detailed account of the process, which I would be happy to send to
anyone interested. I would also like to take the opportunity here
to thank people who answered some questions I had while working
on the drive but whose addresses were unknown to our mailer.

It cost me about $550 to build the drive myself. The cheapest
prices I have seen by mail are $849 for a CMS unit from
MacLand (800-333-3353) and $700 from Diskette Gazette
(800-222-6032). The latter takes its power from the external
floppy port, so would need an external power supply to be used
with a Mac II. 

These commercial units presumably come with software which
you would need to buy separately if you build your own. However,
with something like Retrospect you would have software which
is most likely much superior to whatever is bundled with the
drives.

Gary Davis