🚀 go-pugleaf

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I recently made the _big_ mistake of buying an Iomega Ditto 800 Travan tape
streamer to replace my ageing Colorado DJ10 (40/120Mb QIC-40!). Having
checked with my OS/2 software suppliers that it would be supported under OS/2
(just treat it as an Iomega TapeStore 250) it seemed reasonable to assume
(yes, a dangerous word I know) that the same philosophy would apply under
Windows NT since the TapeStore 250 is supported under NT. After all, the 
recording format is the same (QIC-80), just the length is different (or so 
I understand).

To cut a long story short, it works as it should under OS/2 (with the slight 
exception of a bug in the software) but can I get it to work under NT? Can I 
hell. Iomega support are about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. All 
they do is keep saying things like "it's not supported and there's no plans 
to either", "Win 95 [spit] support should be available in November" (but no 
mention of whether it will work with NT), "try phoning CMS Peripherals/Ideal 
Hardware/any other numbers they can pick out of an ancient telephone book".

One of the contacts mentioned by Iomega said that the Travan drive would 
_never_ be supported because it was "too low-end". What the hell is a 
TapeStore 250 then if it's not low-end??? I don't want to pay a small fortune 
for a backup device (which after all is only an insurance policy), I don't 
want to backup Terabytes per minute (I have to sleep sometime but the PC can 
carry on without me). I also want to retain some compatibility with existing 
cartridges.

I would be grateful if anyone can shed any light on this problem. Will '95
drivers work under NT? Is there a fix/frig I can apply within NT to get it 
to work now? Is there any software available for NT that will support this 
drive? (I understand that there are no plans for the Arcada software to do 
so)

Failing that, anyone know the cheapest SCSI card I can get to support the 
Conner Tapestor 4000 and where to get both of these items (UK preferred)? 
I've seen a review of this drive and it seems pretty good (not to mention 
pretty expensive!) Conner say that their tape drive has problems under NT 
with the cheap NCR SCSI cards.

One thing's for sure: I will never buy anything else from Iomega - their 
support is utter crap.

-- 
Bernard Rushton                     | "Any sufficiently advanced technology
Billericay, Essex, UK               |  is indistinguishable from magic".
e-mail: bernard@foobar.demon.co.uk  |                   - Arthur C. Clarke
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