[ale] backups

[Vernard Martin]

> I have a notebook with a pcmcia/scsi2 card and want to buy a scsi
> drive to use for backups (about 400 meg). I have seen ads for
> syquest and zip drives with removable discs. Is there some reason
> to prefer one of these, or is there a better choice?

That all depends. The Syquest drives hold more data per disc and are in
general much faster than the zip drives. I believe the syquest drive came
out after the zip drive flooded the market and it was intended as a
response to the zip drive.

I believe that the syquest uses some type of hard drive technology. The
discs are therefore more expensive, hold more data, and have faster access. 
135MB per cart with a 18 ms access I think.  I see to remember the syquest
drives are internal IDE drives only. They may have an external version but
I think they are still IDE.

The zip drives use floppy disc technology so the discs are cheaper, hold
less data, and are slower. 100MB per cart with a 26 ms access time I think.
The zip comes in scsi and parallel port flavors. The scsi gives nice
throughput and the parallel version is very portable (although the scsi
isjust as portable if you have a machine with a scsi card in it). The scsi
version of the zip drive is much much faster than the parallel port version.
  
I personally go for the scsi version of the zip drive if all you need is
backup. I think the cheaper carts and the portability are a win over the
syquest drives. 

> If this is not an appropriate post for this group I apologize.

Any question that is not a RTFM is welcome on this mailing list. The main
focus of this list is to disseminate information about Linux and answer
questions for the local Atlanta community.

> I am running the version of linux that runs on a dos partition.
> I think it is UMSDS.

actually UMSDOS but what's an "O" among ALE'ers ":-)

hope this helps

V
-- 
Vernard Martin
(vernard.martin at cc.gatech.edu) http://www.cc.gatech.edu/people/home/vernard/
College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332