#Sony MD drive?
13 messages in this thread
I just got a sales catalog from The PC Zone and it has the Portable MD DATA
Drive from Sony. Seems that a 2.5" magneto-optical disc holds 140 MB and the
interface is SCSI-2. A disc is quoted at $25.98 each (18.5 cents/MB). The
drive is listed at $598.98.
Anyone have any comments on this? Can I assume the disc bare, not like a
3.5" floppy with the plastic shell? Is this a better buy than the 120/230 MB
optical drives?
Albert,
from my experiences with a 128 MB Sony optical drive I would not recommend
buying one. I'd go for removable hard disks today (and DAT for backup).
Dietmar
What's that experience?
ana /krazy images
Ana,
well, first problem was that even though I went for industry standard
Adaptec and Sony those two were incompatible to each other. The Adaptec
software did not even lowlevel a cartridge. Thus I went for CorelSCSI.
The really bad experience is that the disks are unpredictable. For instance
when I lowlovel format a brand new cartridge and then run Norton's disk
test, it'll find some bad sectors (ok, that's normal) and mark them as bad.
If I then run the same disk test again, I'll get more bad sectors at other
places. Strange!
After eliminating all the bad sectors, I copy a large file from the hard
disk over to the MO. After some experience I now go for a copy program that
explicitely does a read-after-write to verify the correctness of the copy
(and all caches turned off). I don't get errors but if I compare the two
some minutes later, there will be differences between the original and the
copy!! Also sometimes reading the copy gives me 'can't read sector' errors.
In conclusion, I have lost a lot of money on this and I do not recommend
this to anyone any more.
And yes, the noise issue: The MO is louder than all three computers and the
laser printer together.
Dietmar
Dietmar R. & James C.:
>> … I went for industry standard Adaptec and Sony those
>> two were incompatible to each other.
Thank you both for your interesting comments, even if they cause me to be
somewhat depressed <g>. I had been thinking that this was the cheap and
reliable technology that I had been waiting to happen. Oh well…
Albert,
Please read my reply to Dietmar.
ana /krazy images
Dietmar,
"The Adaptec software did not even lowlevel a cartridge. Thus I went for
CorelSCSI."
Ah! So there you are! 🙂 Your software doesn't like your hardware, and then
the thing is unreliable and all the other nice comments you have launch against
it. I guess that it is matter of experiences and I realize that, loving the PC
idiosynkrazy as much I do, it not unusual (ha!) to find this kind of
thisdoesn'tworkwiththat problems.
I have to agree with you in ALL your points, but if you are talking about Sony
and from your comments about noise I guess you are talking about the first MO
mechanism arround. Indeed, althought I had, despite the noise, a wonderful
experience with 128MB cartridges, there were some problems in some units,
depending on the manufacturer (being the Sony one of worst implementations of
MO I have ever found -and it was their invention 😛 )
If you are in the market for a MO disk today, then you are lucky, because you
can get the new 230MB or the 5.25" models and I can guarantee you that you not
only are NOT going to find the faults you encountered, but that the medium is
solid, reliable and faster than any other medium in the market, including tape
backup. If you are living in the US, you can be confident that your MO
cartridge will be readed in most service bureaus (from the ID, you are in
Europe, and there you will find a lot of acceptance of the MO format too).
IMHO, from my personal experience and extensive research throught the years
(which include testing of several units in my experience as a writer, talks
with other MO users including SBs and publishing houses,etc.), anyone will find
the current MO standard a true option for their image storage needs, being the
5.25" models true alternatives to online storage (if you are not seeking for a
disk system for your PAR 🙂
As for the new 2.5" CDs, I don't have a clue. I didn't try one yet, and most
probably I never will do it. The size (MBs) is too small for our needs, but
people may find it interesting if they want maximum portability and security.
Is the industry going to accept this new format? I don't know. It will take a
time for it to be at the same level of the MO.
Again this is also going to wait for takeoff, but if you really want to get
into the next century of online storage, wait a couple of months for what Nomai
and IBM are going to introduce. What do you get when you get a SyQuest-like
device and add to it Partial Response Maximum Likelihood data channels and
magneto resistive heads? And MCD. 540MB and 680MB cartridges now, with 750MB
and 1.2GB cartridges in 1996, ALL in a 3.5" format and backwards compatible
(except for the 540MB model, which is not MR based) and with, take this, data
transfer rates as high as 8.5MB. Less than $600 for the drive and $70 per
cartridge. For that price, I am going to buy two and send one for Gary so he
can send me a 680MB disk with the next beta of 3DSr5NT <g>
And don't worry for your magneto optical phobias, the only laser you will find
in a MCD is the servo (no, not Tom, you mysties 🙂 that tracks a piece of
reflective material to pack more magnetic tracks into less space (remember that
we are talking about 540-1.2GB on a 3.5" cartridge). Since it is magnetic, no
fans will be involved, so you ears will be safe too (MO disks right out of the
unit are like hot donuts, even with the noisy fans).
Sounds to good to be true? Call 1-407-391-1216 (see, no 800s 🙂 and get the
whole story. Or just get a glimpse to March issue of MacUser. Or just wait a
couple of months to get IBM to market them in Europe. Or forget all about it.
Or get a 1 terabyte RAID. Or get back to hand drawn animation. Or just push the
button.
ana /krazy images
>540MB and 680MB cartridges now, with 750MB and 1.2GB cartridges in 1996, ALL
in a 3.5" format and backwards compatible (except for the 540MB model, which is
not MR based) and with, take this, data transfer rates as high as 8.5MB. Less
than $600 for the drive and $70 per cartridge.<
Hmm, I'm very glad I didn't get your MO drive now 8^) This sounds excellent.
8.5MB/sec is hard to believe. Reading and writing? I'll take 2-3MB/sec..
This'll change things a ton. Hopefully it'll only on SCSI, and we can get rid
of IDE once and for all. 🙂
JNJ
It is SCSI, no doubt about it, and it is magnetic media, just like a hard drive
on a cartridge. I still have to see the sustained throughtput rate, but the
peak is 8.5MB/s and according to the literature, it is targeted at video and
imaging. As for the Pinnacle. and despite of what would happen in the next
months, I sold it at $340 and that has been an extremely good deal for the guy
who got it (who, BTW, was aware of 230MOs, the Sony 2.5" and the MCD). He
needed it now because he needed a low cost portable system and as a
communication channel with his SB.
ana /krazy images
Magnetic eh? I'll definately check it out.
JNJ
Ana,
thanks for your lengthy reply. Yes, it was one of the early MOs. It still
sits on a shelf right next to me and does nothing good 🙂
While you might be corrct that things are better now, I only have to say
that I have jumped on this technology (maybe too early) and that it was a
fault.
Dietmar
Sometimes (for me, nearly a 100% of the time -I am really lucky 🙂 it pays to
jump into early technologies because while people are sitting still waiting for
the "next thing", you are able to squeeze the new technology (a good example of
this has been the PowerMacintosh or 3D Studio). The effort is worthy 99% of the
time if you have some hability and you "bet" for the right technology (this
needs a correct research methodology, good contacts and some instinct -ask me
about that, my DEC XL, 3DS and NT! 😉 In your case, I am sure that it was not
a fault of the technology nor yours, but of the product itself. Sony units were
really crappy and bulky, surprisingly because the MO mechanism was invented by
them! MOs are mature, reliable and cheap enough now to be a semi-online storage
device for everyone.
But there are more things to come and I will be there 🙂
ana /krazy images
You too?
I barrowed a 128 MO and ran into trouble whever I used disks not made by the
same manufacturer as the drive. Even _with_ the OEM disks, I occasionally had
trouble. Besides that, the write operaitons are painfully slow when writing a
hundred 1MB files. I think I waited over 30 minutes on a 486 DX/2 50 to get a
disk filled up. Oh ya, it was noisy too! I sure am glad I was only barrowing
it. I would feel bad to own it.
I am seriously looking into Syquest via SCSI-2 since that is what most service
bureaus use. With Ana's note about PC<=>MAC exchange software for Syquests,
I'm pretty much sold on the idea.
— James — Choreo Motion —