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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
- Path: sparky!uunet!decwrl!csus.edu!netcomsv!mork!mmaston
- From: mmaston@netcom.com (Michael Maston)
- Subject: Re: Advice needed on Colorado Tape drive.
- Message-ID: <t+jm74f.mmaston@netcom.com>
- Date: Sat, 25 Jul 92 01:40:07 GMT
- Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
- References: <1992Jul24.213325.13830@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
- Lines: 27
-
-
- I was in the same basic situation you are talking about (both floppy
- connectors used and only 2 supported by HD/FD interface). I bought the
- Colorado Jumbo 120 and figured I would just live without one of my
- floppy drives when i needed the tape drive. I found out, however, that
- the tape drive comes with a cable that connect to your FD interface and
- then connect to your existing FD cable. Of course, this provided cable also
- has one more connector on it that goes to the tape unit itself. The tape
- drive does not take the place of a floppy drive at all and therefore all
- three devices are available at all times. They must bypass the firmware
- that controls the floppies and directly manipulate the tape drive hardware
- to achieve this. Of course there is nothing (!) on the box that would let
- you know this ahead of time! I assume that most (if not all) other floppy
- interface controlled tape units do the same thing.
-
- As for the unit itself, so far I am very satisfied. It was easy to install
- and the backup software is complete, but straightforward to use. I did
- try using it under a DOS window in OS/2 2.0 just for kicks. As expected,
- since it is doing some tricks by manipulating the hardware, this doesn't
- work well....it tries, but it gets lost and tries to talk to the floppy drives
- after a while. Under DOS (using 5.0) it is rock-solid though. All in all,
- a good product!
-
- Good luck!
-
- Michael Maston
- GTE Government Systems
-