Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!husc6!rutgers!clyde!cbatt!cbosgd!gatech!akgua!rebel!george From: george@rebel.UUCP (George M. Sipe) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.periphs Subject: Re: Lot's of questions Message-ID: <203@rebel.UUCP> Date: Tue, 23-Dec-86 14:21:32 EST Article-I.D.: rebel.203 Posted: Tue Dec 23 14:21:32 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 24-Dec-86 00:19:13 EST References: <9073FIB@PSUVM> <2750@osu-eddie.UUCP> Reply-To: george@rebel.UUCP (George M. Sipe) Organization: Tolerant Systems, Atlanta GA Lines: 29 Keywords: Bernoulli Summary: plug for Bernoulli Box Xref: mnetor comp.sys.ibm.pc:666 comp.periphs:76 In article <2750@osu-eddie.UUCP> mdf@osu-eddie.UUCP (Mark D. Freeman) writes: >In article <9073FIB@PSUVM> you write: > >There are software packages to do this. I say buy a Bernoulli Box though. > >>2) Has anybody had any experience (good or bad) with the Bernoulli Box? > >BBs are as fast as an AT hard disk when used on an AT. They do not get head >crashes, and the cartridges are portable and very rugged. Buy one! I have used the Bernoulli Box for about 3 years now. I find them fast, reliable, and rugged. My only complaint is that the cost of the media has increased from the initial $30 to several times that. Low media cost was a big factor for me in buying them. Beyond that, no problems... never broken, never lost data, always interchangable, fast access, fast duplication. Highly recommended. I should note that I wrote my own drivers, my own copy program, and my own 'formatter' (don't ask, all in Z80 assembly). Many people don't realize that each cartridge has a (redundant) info area which the drive reads to learn how to handle it. The info includes bad track information, dwell timer info (the drive will idle the motor after 5, 7.5, 10, etc. minutes on a per cartridge - not drive - basis), two different ECC options, and sector interleave. If you don't 'format' (i.e. set these things specifically) you will be very lucky if the settings are suitable for your specific hardware and application, particularly for ECC and skew. Of course, that will make a substantial difference in reliability and performance.