Labels:text | screenshot OCR: BackPack Tape = Drive 80MB by Tony Curro There are quite a few people out there who do not like to go "under the hood" of their PC. For this reason many are still using floppy disks to back up their systems, which can be time consuming, tedious, and costly. Many others take, which is to them, 'the easy way out' by NOT backing up at a11. Micro Solutions has a solution to your problem. I just reviewed their latest BackPack Tape Drive that started shipping in late September. Of course it is an external drive. It is faster than their earlier drive, measures 1 1/2 x 4 x 7 3/4, and weighs 2 1/2 pounds. Not only is this good for a person who does not want to open the system, it is also good for the many of us who have no more room in our systems. Even laptop users, and people in a business environment who can take the drive from system to system to back them up, can benefit with this drive. Why is it called BackPack? Very simply it plugs into your parallel port, and your printer plugs into the tape drive. Micro Solutions has a full line of these products that have the unique plug-and-play technology that makes them easy to install even if you are a novice user. If you have you printer connected to your system, or even if you don't, but you know which is the parallel port, you can install any of these drives. Also if you decide to buy any of their other BackPack products you just daisy-chain them together, with the printer cable being connected to the last drive in the chain. BackPack is an 80MB tape drive, using QIC-80 tapes. These are the standard mini data cartridges DC2080, DC2120 and compatibles. Using the extended length tape you can store up to 240MB on one tape with compression. It comes with software that is as easy to install as it is to use. You MUST use the software that comes with BackPack. The other backup software products on the market do NOT support this technology. [ have run several backups with this drive and was very satisfied. ou can use compression if you wish to store more on one cartridge. However, you must remember that using compression will slow the backup down somewhat, more so if you have a slow system. I backed up about 30 megs. which took 16 minutes. One feature that I found enjoyable was its quiet operation. There is a light that shows drive access. At times I forgot I was backing up the system, as I did not hear the usual noise a tape drive makes . The list price of the drive may be considered high by some. Street price will drastically reduce the price, although still leaving it a bit more costly than conventional tape drives. Remember I said 'conventional.' BackPack, running off the parallel port is NOT conventional. And that those hot inclined to add hardware to their systems, can connect this faster than the blink of an eye. Other drives coming out with the same technology are said to also be in the same price range. Overall, I was very pleased with this drive, and I look forward to reviewing other products from MicroSolutions. I do not know if they created the parallel commection technology, but they have used it to excellent effect. Just think about adding a 100MB drive, 2.8 floppy, CD-ROM, or a standard 3 1/2 or 5 1/4 floppy by plugging it in to your parallel port. These would be great for laptop users. Product Information BackPack Tape Drive 80MB = List Price $669 Micro Solutions 132 W. Lincoln Hwy. DeKalb, IL 60115 815-756-3411
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