🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <ant3119110b0yYVB@darwin.u-net.com>, Tim Dawson
<URL:mailto:dawsontp@darwin.u-net.com> wrote:
 
[Snip]
> Compatibility considerations... ZIPs appear quite popular amongst the PC
> fraternity
> 
> SyQuests similarly so but with different generations (135/105/270) there are
> problems reading between formats I believe.
> 
> So taking these factors into a/c which should one buy??
> 
> Are there any parallel port Zipists out there happy with there lot?
> Are the 135SQs too new a format to be a safe buy?
> 
> Answers please.. :-)

 Yes, I'm one happy parallel port Zip drive user, who is also a SyQuest 
 owner (albeit old style 5.1/4" 88Mbyte SCSI), foot in both camps? :-) 
 
 Bought one from Argo at the Acorn RoadShow in Cambridge 6 weeks ago, I am 
 pleased with it, it is quiet and tolerably fast, about half as fast again
 as my Archies ST506 H/Drive.  I'm  using it mainly for backups, supplementing
 (eventually replacing) SyQuest 5" 88MB cartridges, as the media is is both
 'bigger' and well under half the cost at 15UKP compared to 40UKP, and can 
 be used with CFS say to vitually double the backup capacity.

 ZIP Discs are available from box shifters at 10UKP (Plus VAT)!

 Also used it for moving 'large files' ie. colour scans, DTPpages, and 
 PD etc. about, to friends and to the computer group with much less hassle
 than the SyQuests, no SCSI card to bother with.

 I do have some reservations about using Zip Drive as an 'everyday and all
 day' device because of its obviously light construction compared to the
 SyQuest device.   Which  has been used for the past 4 years on and off
 between 2 computers (Arch 440 and RPC) certainly as a main drive drive with
 the Archimedes with no problems whatever, not even one disc error among 7
 cartridges! 

 It is too soon to say how reliable Zip drives will be in the long term,
 and I have a friend who has had two dud ie. became unuseable out of six. 
 
 I have 3 Zip discs in use, 2 as Acorn format CFS'ed, and 1 as PC format 
 (for PC card) with no problems whatever. 



-- 
David Mc Dowell:          Tel: 01480 381996.      
               Acorn User since the Acorn Atom in 1978                  
             Secretary: Bottisham Acorn Users Group - BAUG                  
                   Cambridgeshire,   United Kingdom.