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SYQUESTS
Where I work, we have used Syquest drives for quite some time, but at one
point, we became very annoyed with the company. One of our drives broke
down, and when we called about having it fixed, they wanted to charge almost
as much to fix it as for a new drive. The representative was so
matter-of-fact and unapologetic that we decided not to do much future
business with Syquest.

BUT -- we have been happy with the 3.5" and the 5.25" media. We especially
like the 270 MB 3.5" cartridges because of their capacity. All service
bureaus we have worked with support both sizes.

ZIP DRIVES
About 6 months ago, we purchased internal (ITAPI) Zip drives from Tiger
Direct. These drives connect to your computer like second hard drives, and
they are really great. They are much faster than the parallel-port Zip
drives. The average cost for these internal drives is $99. Because they are
cheap, we can afford to put on on each graphic design workstation we have.

ZIP DISKS FOR TRANSPORT
We use them in two different ways: transport and working archive. We took 6
Zip disks and created custom labels for them. (We called them "Overland
Transport Disks," and one of our designers create a Pony Express style
design.) Each disk is numbered, and whenever we send one out, we log it out
and record its destination. This really helps us keep track of them.

ZIP DISKS FOR WORKING ARCHIVES
We also use Zip disks for working archives. Some of our clients do so much
busienss with us that they get their own Zip disks. All Draw files for that
one client are stored on that disk. If it gets full, we archive the old
files to a new Zip disk or a Syquest.

We make sure each disk has a unique label. Then we use ROMCat to catalog the
disk. Everyone on our network can access the ROMCat file and locate any
client/design we might have on file. It works really well for us.

ABOUT ARCHIVE FILE FORMATS
Personally, I think the best archive format is native file format. Since
Corel has added file compression to Draw, we are able to significantly
decrease file sizes without using PKZIP or some other compression utility.
In just a few tests I ran, saving the file using Draw's compression features
yielded compressed files similar in size to ZIPped archives. Even if the
files end up being larger than if they were ZIPped, it is much more
convenient to access them as live files. Otherwise, we would have to unZIP
the file first, then open it.

--

Mike Bloustine
Visit Portal: Tips and Tricks for Corel Graphics Users
http://www.feist.com/~tenor

Gadget wrote in message <6a01v6$kvn$1@biffo.sol.co.uk>...
>>>> Alternatively get a Jaz or Zip drive (removable media, stores *lots*
>>>> more than floppies) or a CD writer.
>>> I would not advise a Jaz or a Zip.
>
>To digress slightly : What is the removable medium people would recommend
>for mass storage and transportation (eg. to printers) ?
>
>Jaz ? Zip ? CD ? Omega ? Tape ? ...
>
>Gadget
>gadget2020@hotmail.com
>
>
>
>