29 Nov
2009
29 Nov
'09
1:55 p.m.
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:49:20 -0500
From: Murray McCullough <c.murray.mccullough at gmail.com>
Subject: Different take on 10 Yr. 'RULE'
A different interpretation on the 10 Yr. 'Rule'. Many experts, CPU mag
being one, say that we shouldn't store info on CDs, DVDs, etc. as they
may be unreadable in less than 10 yrs. Wouldn't it be sad if we lost
valuable information on the classic computing era? I guess
old-fashioned paper is the best way after all! Let's hope these
technologies last longer than my Zip-drive and disks that can't be
read because the drive died and I can't get it fixed or at the very
least at a decent price. So Sad!
Murray--
--------------Reply:
Only sad if you want it to be...
No problem finding a working ZIP drive for free or next to nothing
these days; all kinds of them on eBay at .99 with no bids, or just
ask on the various forums and I'm sure someone'll be happy to get
rid of one.
Never had any problems with my drives or disks, FWIW.
m
29 Nov
29 Nov
2:27 p.m.
On Sun, 29 Nov 2009, M H Stein wrote:
Only sad if you want it to be...
No problem finding a working ZIP drive for free or next to nothing
these days; all kinds of them on eBay at .99 with no bids, or just
ask on the various forums and I'm sure someone'll be happy to get
rid of one.
Get a BUNCH of the free drives. The dead outnumber the living.
Drives that tested OK may already be dead.
Never had any problems with my drives or disks, FWIW.
Their Bernoulli drives seemed to be OK.
But, even their ZIP drives were not their least reliable product.
I bought a NEW Ditto 3200 for backup. Their "tech support" required
payment BEFORE reaching a human, with a promise of reimbursement if they
acknowledged the problem as being theirs. There was literally no way to
ask them whether the drive supported the Verbatim "extended" media. At
Comdex, I cornered one of their people and he gave me a copy of the
"updated" software. The drive did not work long enough to get the
software loaded.
How about their "Jaz" drives?
their "click" drives? In which the "click of death" was administered
DURING manufacturing.
3 Dec
3 Dec
10:11 p.m.
On 29 Nov 2009 at 14:27, Fred Cisin wrote:
How about their "Jaz" drives?
their "click" drives? In which the "click of death" was
administered
DURING manufacturing.
Remember in the late 90's how Iomega stock zoomed up to about $80 a
share with no one offering any logical explanation? Then it dropped
like a rock about as fast. One of the first "pump and dumps". I'm
surprised that the company survived it.
Of course, I wasn't that much smarter--I fell for the hype by Lernout
and Hauspie. Fortunately, they hit my price target and I got out
before all hell broke loose.
--Chuck
(Who still has a few new Zip and Jaz drives that he lacks the nerve
to use for anything meaningful)
29 Nov
29 Nov
5:44 p.m.
M H Stein wrote:
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:49:20 -0500
From: Murray McCullough <c.murray.mccullough at gmail.com>
Subject: Different take on 10 Yr. 'RULE'
A different interpretation on the 10 Yr. 'Rule'. Many experts, CPU mag
being one, say that we shouldn't store info on CDs, DVDs, etc. as they
may be unreadable in less than 10 yrs. Wouldn't it be sad if we lost
valuable information on the classic computing era? I guess
old-fashioned paper is the best way after all! Let's hope these
technologies last longer than my Zip-drive and disks that can't be
read because the drive died and I can't get it fixed or at the very
least at a decent price. So Sad!
Murray--
--------------Reply:
Only sad if you want it to be...
No problem finding a working ZIP drive for free or next to nothing
these days; all kinds of them on eBay at .99 with no bids, or just
ask on the various forums and I'm sure someone'll be happy to get
rid of one.
Never had any problems with my drives or disks, FWIW.
I am still running under Windows 98SE and will soon be upgrading to
Windows XP
on a Q9650 CPU. There already is a SCSI host adapter on the new system
and I
am wondering if anyone can remember if they were able to install the
SCSI Insider
software from Iomega (the was included with the 100 MB Zip drives) under
Windows XP? This software allowed software access to a WRITE PROTECT
feature along with several other features. It worked very well under
W98SE and
I am hoping that the software will also work under WXP. Can anyone comment?
I have a number of these Zip media which I used to support a DEC system
running
RT-11 and TSX-PLUS. There was a CMD 200/TM SCSI host adapter with a
small SCSI hard drives and a 100 MB SCSI Zip drive (instead of an RX50
floppy
drive) for the removable media. If I remember the situation correctly
(around 1998),
the original hard drive was the RD53 which had been failing far too
often at that
point. I think that the SCSI hard drives that were used were around 100 MB
which, along with the 100 MB SCSI Zip drives, was able to provide a complete
backup of the hard drives.
I never found any way to toggle the Zip media under RT-11, only under W98SE.
If anyone did manage that on real DEC hardware (well with a CQD SCSI host
adapter on a DEC PDP-11/73 in a BA23 box), it would be appreciated, not
that it is very helpful these days. I don't think I have bothered with
the Zip drives
for a while, so I guess that I should keep the W98SE system around until
all of
the Zip drives are checked.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
5497
days inactive
5502
days old
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