Syquest SparQ drives
The Syquest SparQ drive is an external hard drive with a 1 Gigabyte removable disc. It connects to the computer via the parallel printer port. It's completely separate from the computer and, unlike most other external devices such as USB, SCSI or network drives, requires absolutely no additional hardware to be fitted and draws no power from the computer's supply. We supply the complete package including our own RISC OS driver software which can be used on up to five machines.
The RISC OS driver software can be supplied separately if you already have a Syquest parallel port drive. Driver software for Windows XP and Vista is also available.
Don't be put off by the very low cost of this offer. It's only a fraction of their original cost but we have acquired a large number of drives at a very good price and, knowing how good they are, we want to pass this good fortune on to RISC OS users.
All you need is a computer with a bi-directional printer port. For RISC OS computer users this means -
- RiscPC
- A7000 or A7000+
- A3010, A3020, A4000 or A5000
- Microdigital Mico or Omega
- RiscStation
How it works
The drive just plugs in to the computer's printer port using the cable provided and has a 'through connector' for your printer. If the SparQ drive isn't switched on your printer will still work perfectly. In use it behaves just like any other RISC OS hard drive with a 'normal' drive icon on the iconbar. Because of the limitations of the printer port it's not as fast as a normal hard drive but it's a lot quicker than a ZIP drive, with which many RISC OS computer users will be familiar. Discs can simply be dismounted and changed at any time.
1GB might not sound very large but you get two discs with this offer and many RISC OS users still only have very small hard drives (by PC standards) or, if they do have a bigger drive, are using only a fraction of its capacity. Even if you do have many Gigabytes of material on your hard drive, with its reliable 1GB discs the SparQ is a good means of quickly and easily backing up volatile data, which will often only be a small part of the total content of your hard drive. As it's transportable between machines it's also an ideal way of moving data between machines which aren't connected by a network or which may be in different locations.
The APDL SparQ drive pack costs just £21.90
Complete with our own RISC OS driver and formatting software, two 1GB discs and all leads and fittings. Drive and discs are fully guaranteed for one year.
Please add £8.50 UK carriage. If you are using an OS before RISC OS 3.6 please specify at the time of ordering and we will supply the discs already paritioned.
Extra 1GB discs are available for just £4.50. Please add £2.50 UK carriage for first disc, £1 for each additional disc. For more than one disc enter the number of discs required in the Shopping Cart.
Use with A7000 and A7000+
Although the RiscPC is capable of having additional drives and expansion cards fitted internally many other models aren't. For example, the A7000 and A7000+ can't easily be fitted with a conventional backup device. However, as the SparQ connects to the printer port and draws no power from the computer's power supply it's an ideal backup device for these models.
Use with older models
The RISC OS driver software provided allows discs to be partitioned so although the discs are 1GB they can be divided into two partitions of less than 512MB for use on machines running operating systems before RISC OS 3.6. As these are often the models where it's difficult or expensive to fit conventional backup drives the SparQ is an ideal solution.
Use as a hard drive
The A3010 and A3020 machines were not normally fitted with a hard drive. If you have one of these models then the SparQ is a quick, easy means of attaching a 1GB drive at very low cost. It won't be quite as fast as a conventional hard drive but it's more than adequate for most purposes. Plus if you do acquire another RISC OS machine later, such as a RiscPC, you can just plug your SparQ drive into it and transfer all your data.
RISC OS SparQ software
If you already have a SparQ parallel port drive and don't have RISC OS software or the software you have will only work with older OS versions then you can purchase our software separately. This is as supplied with the SparQ package and includes formatting and partitioning software, a printed manual and a Licence for use on up to 5 computers. The software supports RISC OS 4 type long filenames.
Although designed for the SparQ it will also work with the Syquest EZ 230. It may also work with other Syquest parallel port drives but it has only been tried with the SparQ and EZ 230.
We guarantee that the software will work on any RiscPC but there can be problems with a small number of A3010, A3020, A4000 or A5000 machines so we can offer absolutely no warranty with these models, although it is perfectly OK with the vast majority of these machines.
The APDL Syquest SparQ RISC OS software package costs just £10. Please add £1.50 UK carriage, £2.50 outside UK.
Use with a Windows PC
Software is included with the drive for DOS and Windows 95, 98 and NT. A driver for Windows 2000 is available (below) which I have found works with Windows XP and I'm told is OK with Vista.
If your Acorn computer is using RISC OS 4.02 or better it will be able to read DOS formatted SparQ discs so you can use it to transfer data between a RISC OS and Windows computer quickly and easily. This means it's a simple and low cost solution if you have installed VirtualAcorn on a PC and want to transfer your data from your old RISC OS machine.
 SparQ Win 2000/XP/Vista driver
Support
Although no longer manufactured the SparQ and its discs are still widely available. We have good stocks of both drives and discs so will be able to supply additional discs or warranty replacement parts in the unlikely event of this being necessary.
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