#Amiga Tape Backup
10 messages in this thread
Have just installed a tape backup unit on my IBM clone. Cost was around
$269.00 to backup 120 Megs. It is great and a real time saver.
That in mind, tried to find a similar item for our Amiga 2000. Saw one or
two advertised….. nearly had a heart attack! Price asked was around $600
to $700. Who said Amiga hardware was low cost?
Surely…. if a tape drive backup for the PC can be made/sold in the
$200/300 range, why cannot the same be made and sold for the Amiga? It
would seem a golden opportunity for some enterprising OEM.
Perhaps some thoughtful Amiga programmer could come up with some software
which allows us to backup to perhaps a home VCR, at a cost of say $100.
What do you think? All the best….. Hilary.
Hilary..
Good point. I'd like to see inexpensive tape drives as well. Ideally,
something that is 3.5" so it will fit into my 3000, and run off of the
floppy controller. It wouldn't be fast, but if it were cheap I wouldn't
care much. I'd just like to have it for backups.
Jim
The tape drive you bought probably uses it's own controller or is a "floppy
tape" drive running off the floppy controller. mostly, the Amiga utilizes
SCSI devices which are inherently faster but more expensive. The prices in
the Amiga market are comparable to that in the Mac and PC markets for SCSI
tape drives…..
-Jonathan
Compared to the PC market, not much Amiga hardwre is cheap. They
benefit tremendously from economies of scale. When it comes to things
like VGA boards, the latest and great might cost $600 when
introduced, and sells for $150 twelve-eighteen months later. Making
Amiga hardware requires a lot of work with little promise of return,
and high risk of the market changing or the Amiga changing. Ask any
Amiga hardware company who got socked by the multiple revisions of
the Amiga 2000 interface spec, the Amiga 3000 interface spec, the
Amiga 500 interface spec, etc. Those $200 PC tape units benefit from
the 50 million PC owners who might buy one, while the active market
of Amiga owners who might buy one isn't probably more than a few
hundred thousand in this country.
You are correct John about the limited (and changing) Amiga marketplace,
plus having to put up with the foibles of COMMODORE. Many moons ago I saw
something in one journal which offered software which would allow a
conventional consumer VHS type VCR to be used as a backup unit. Think it
was PC related. The interlink was via one of the COMM ports (Serial). I
don't think there was any attempt at control of the VCR (RS422 and the
like).
As one can now buy VCR's around $200 – it would seem to be a possible way
to go. Would the software for the Amiga be any problem?
I am in the video production business which probably throws me in the
direction of high density recording via tape.
I think that WORDPERFECT found out the hard way in their Amiga efforts,
since terminated. No wonder that in the real world the poor machine is
thought of as a child's plaything! Great pity.
Regards…………. Hilary.
Once I saw one of those VCR-based backup systems for the PC at a PC
flea market. the guy selling it wanted ten bucks for it. The price
alone made me suspicious. I remember some Amiga hardware companies
thinking about something like that, many years ago. One problem is
you need to add so much error correction to the "data" you send out
as video, and then you've got to make it "compatible" with all those
$200 and all those $20 rummage-sale VCRs that consumers will demand
to use with it. With the Amiga, you'd think it would be easier than
the PC, because we have video-out, and a PC card would need to
synthesize a video-like signal. I'm sure it could be done.
Recording the video signal might not be a problem, but reading it
back in is another question entirely…
Sorry to interfere your "conference".
There is a solution for VCR-Backups. A German enterprise:
M. Weisgerber Rathausstrasse 2 D-W-6551 Fuerfeld
Tel & Fax: 011 6709 778
They selling "Video-Backup" Rel 2.11 for DM 198.– (about $100).
I don't know if the software is in english, too. (Personally I never saw
such a solution in use and know nobody using it, but it's worth a try (if
it works with NTSC machines…)
Greetings Mike
No problem, you were not interfering. Thanks for the information. Does
this video backup system work well? Is it popular in Germany?
The first version only allowed a full backup and restore. But this version
will allow backup and restore of files too (But I've to find the review
somewhere …. Oh no, it's not a mess here, sometimes it's even worse….)
I'll call back later!