Re: DVD-RAM

[Paul Orrungroj <ucsd.synk@edu>]

last week i bought a dvd-ram bundle from creative labs. it cost me like $750
total. it came with a scsi internal dvd-ram drive, 6 dvd-ram discs, and a dxr2
decoder card. maybe it was just that my dvd-ram drive was bad, but it seemed
like the software was really buggy. after a couple rewrites to the dvd-ram disc,
i couldn't get it to write anymore or even reformat the disc. anyways, i'm
returning the drive.

i heard there was this new removable drive called the orb developed by
castlewood. it's only 2.2 gB (~ half the size of dvd-ram) but features hard disk
like access time and speed. these drives are supposed to hit retail channels
sometime within the next month, and would only cost about $200 (~ half the price
of dvd-ram) and the media would cost $30.

Allan Carhart wrote:

> Hey guys. Since my Syquest drive is dead, and Syquest has filed for
> bankruptcy, I am giving up on that 1.5G backup solution, and looking
> for alternatives. I am considering Jaz, which (if I'm not mistaken)
> will cost me about $300 for internal SCSI, and a significant cost per
> 1G cartridge. I'm also concerned about data integrity, since this is still a
> magnetic medium.
>
> So I'm thinking about optical storage, and wondering if I can get any
> thoughts on this.  I found a few DVD RAM drives, like this one:
> http://www.peakstorage.com/product.asp?id=218&scat=&cat=
>
> It reads/writes 5G of storage, and can read CDs too. I know this isn't
> a very portable technology like CDs, but then again neither was Syquest
> cartridges. :-)
>
> So the drive is around $500, and the media is $300 for 10 disks.
> (or $150 for 5)
>
> This looks like a great deal -- it's relatively cheap, it's mass storage,
> it's rewriteable, and it's optical. (which I like better than magnetic)
>
> Am I missing anything?
>
> Thanks for your thoughts/ideas/advice.
>
> --Allan
> carhart.allan@com