DBUG> There is a new hardware storage device in town!

[Gary Smith <gsmith@jhyatthammond.com>]

Hello Forum:

If you haven't heard, check out Creative Lab's DVD RAM drive.  This
device serves a dual function, it plays 10 cm CD-ROMs and DVD's and it
also acts as a removable storage device all in one 5 ¼" bay.  The
removable device is made up of a square ¼" deep cartridge that holds two
back to back 10 cm  DVD re-writable disks.  Each phase change DVD RAM
disk holds 2.6 GB of data, for a whopping 5.2 GB of total storage on the
entire cartridge!  That's twice as much storage as an Iomega Jazz drive
and the DVD RAM cartridge costs only $45 each verses the $120+ for a 2
GB Jazz disk!

A deeper box like tray holds the cartridge for insertion into the drive.
When being used to read data off of 10cm disks, the bottom of the tray,
with circular inset, rises as it is retracted into the drive to the
normal height of DVD and CD-ROM players.  Because the drive heads are on
the bottom side like any other player, only one side of the cartridge
can be accessed at a time.  You can use the DVD-RAM as a replacement for
a CD-ROM or DVD player, since it reads both kinds of 10 cm disks.  We
are using ours in addition to a EIDE DVD player.

Since the drive has a dual function it shows up as two different Icons
and drive letters in Windows Explorer.  One icon appears as a CD-Drive
and the other as a removable disk drive.  (While both icons are
displayed simultaneously you can only access the one that matches the
contents of the drive.)  The device will not work, however, on an IDE
connector.  You will have to put in a SCSI 2 card.  (I successfully used
an Advansys 3922-00 SCSI 2 Adapter.)  It also will NOT function as a DVD
Writer to produce indelible 10 cm DVD disks that can be read on any DVD
player.  Hey you can't have everything!

We are using the DVD RAM as a backup device on our latest Gateway Athlon
computer, (thanks for the Athlon advice Neil), instead of a TBU.
Seagate seems to have eliminated IDE tape drives and gone on to a SCSI 2
20 GB tape format.  Buying this TBU would have cost twice as much,
($500+) as the last EIDE TBU ($270+) that we had been getting and would
have introduced yet another incompatible tape standard into our office.
The DVD-RAM by contrasts costs about $290 at CDW and uses the familiar
Windows Explorer interface.  Add to that the advantage of non linear
storage requiring copying only changed files to RAM disks and it was no
contest.  In ether case we would have had to buy the SCSI 2 adapter so
that was not a factor.  

While 5 GB is less than 20 GB, I have found that the growth rate of our
CAD files has not matched the exponential growth in hard drive capacity
that tape drives are straining to match.  If you only back up data files
and not software and the OS, then a DVD-RAM is enough capacity for the
job.  It is also ideal for moving lots of data between an office
computer and your home computer!

Gary

============================+
+Gary W. Smith,  AIA, CSI, NCARB
+J. Hyatt Hammond Associates
+Email: gsmith@jhyatthammond.com
+Web:   www.jhyatthammond.com
+Phone: 336.370.8400
+Fax:     336.370.8420

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