Conference hydra::amiga_v1

3789.0. "SyQuest 44mb Removable Media Hard Drive - Review" by TPWEST::MJJONES (Cursed with a pornographic memory) Fri May 18 1990 18:42

I picked up a Syquest 44mb removable hard disk drive a couple of weeks ago.
Since there had been some interest expressed in this drive earlier in this
conference, here is a first hand account.

This is quite long, here is what's ahead

	Installation details
	Automatic disk change detection
	Write protect your 44mb cartridge (and the ultimte write protection)
	Backups:
		cartridge to cartridge single drive copy (YES!}
		1/2 live, 1/2 backup partitioning
	Syquest vs Bernoulli
	UNIX or other special purpose cartridges

Physical installation

The drive is a 5 1/4" half height form factor drive, and the obvious place for
it is in the 5 1/4" bay of the A2000.  Since you need access to insert and
remove the 44mb cartridges, "hard card" type controllers wouldn't seem 
appropriate (although they would work).  I picked up the GVP Impact 8/0 SCSI
interface board (SCSI interface socketed for 8 megabytes of 1m by 8 SIMMs like
the M*C II uses for additional memory).  No special setup required, the GVP
Impact 8/0 went in a slot, the Syquest in the 5 1/4 drive bay, plug in the
A2000 power connector to the Syquest, plug the Syquest into the Controller
and boot the machine.

Formatting, partitioning and software installation

I've got to give it to the folks at GVP, they have a nice installation package.
It tells you "hey, this looks like a removable media hard drive".  It tells
you the model number of the drive you've got installed, revision numbers that
the Syquest says it is, number of blocks, megabytes, etc.  If you wish to
partition a disk, you just say 10 megabytes for the first partition, 19 and
15 and it does all the figuring of tracks/cylinder numbers, automatically
formats it all for you and installs AmigaDOS 1.3 on the first partition and
makes it autobootable.  All of the partitions (yes even the first) are FFS.  NO
need for a non-FFS boot partition.

Non-GVP controllers and sector size

The Syquest (and Bernoulli) drives have a 256 byte sector size.  This may
seem odd, but the ECC (error checking and correction) utilized by modern
hard drives is capable of correcting at least single bit errors on a sector.
The ECC code detects usually 1, 2 or more bit errors in a sector and provides
enough information to correct 1 bit errors.  The larger the sector that the
ECC code has to correct, the more likely there will be more bit errors than
can be corrected.  A 512 byte sector is much more likely to have a 2 bit
uncorrectable error than a 256 byte sector.  512 byte sectors may be safe for
sealed, fixed hard drives, but removable media gets more handling and there is
more potential for contamination.

From what I understand, not all SCSI controllers will support Syquest (and 
Bernoulli) disk drives.  GVP has this support, I claim ignorance on others.
They understand that they have to read and write 2 sectors of 256 bytes each to
make up the 512 byte blocks that AmigaDos wants to work with.

Partitioning and disk changes (yeah, you read it right)

The GVP EPROMs sniff the removable media drives once every second or two to
see if a diskchange has taken place.  They only report a diskchange event 
**AFTER** the new disk has been inserted **AND** it is **NOT** the same disk
that was previously inserted.

Now comes a minor restriction.  If you plan on removing one 44mb cartridge and
replacing it with another one **WITHOUT** rebooting, the new disk must have the
same partitioning as the old one.  This restriction actually has nothing to do
with the GVP removable drive support.  AmigaDOS sets up the partition
information when the drive is mounted (or automounted in this case), and
AmigaDOS is incapable of changing partitioning information on a disk change.
The AmigaDOS disk change code was obviously designed for floppies.  If you
replace one 44mb cartridge with another with different partitioning without
rebooting, it can destroy the new disk.

The upshot of this is:  use only one partition per cartridge or settle on one 
partitioning scheme and use it for all the cartridges (or be damn careful).

Write protect

This is great.  The cartridge itself has a write protect device that disables
the HARDWARE from writing to the cartridge.  Unfortunately, SCSI devices are
incapable of generating unsolicited interrupts to say "hey, I'm write protected
now", or "hey, I'm not write protected anymore", so you must inform AmigaDOS
that the cartridge isn't writable anymore using the AmigaDOS LOCK command.

If you plan to boot read-only, simply put an ASK (or JASK) command in the
startup sequence to ask you if the cartridge is write protected or not.  Then
conditionally do a lock if the response was "yes it is write protected".

If there is a need to write protect a cartridge on the fly, just eject the
cartridge, set the write protect device and re-insert it.  Then issue the
LOCK DH0: ON command to inform AmigaDOS that it is write protected.  Use
the reverse procedure with LOCK DH0: OFF when you want to be able to write
to it again.

So many people have asked if they can HARDWARE write protect their hard disks,
and with the virus scares going around, this feature is great for testing new
unproven or suspicious software.

The ultimate write protection

Don't put a cartridge in the drive.  What happens?  Well, at powerup the
kickstart routines wait for the drive to spin up.  It doesn't because there
is no disk cartridge in it.  Don't worry, after about 2 minutes, the drive
controller times out and AmigaDOS will go ahead and boot from a floppy in DF0:.

On a reboot with no cartridge (ctrl-Amiga-Amiga) it does the same thing.  After
about 2 minutes the disk controller times out and will boot from DF0: or RAD:
or whatever bootable devices you have set up.

If you don't want to wait around for 2 minutes with no cartridge in the drive,
you can rig up a switch to a jumper on the GVP controller to disable autoboot,
then with the switch off it comes straight up.

Backups

When I was first testing this all out, I tried a DISKCOPY DH0: TO DH0:.  It
started up ok, then said "THIS WILL TAKE 71 SWAPS, PRESS RETURN TO CONTINUE"
needless to say, I hit ^C.  I called GVP and said that this hardly seemed
fair, as I have 3 megabytes of memory on the machine.  GVP tech support said
that AmigaDOS 1.3.2 DISKCOPY uses all available memory (they ship 1.3 with
their installation disks).  No problem, I've got 1.3.2.  Sho' nuff, down to
17 swaps (your actual mileage may vary).  Now I have a good reason to go out
and get another 6 megabytes (but dear, I can probably get this DISKCOPY down
to just 5 swaps with 9 megabytes of memory).

Two of these drives would allow you to do track by track DISKCOPY in about
5 or 6 minutes as far as I can estimate.  44mb in 6 minutes, not bad.

Since these cartridges are relatively cheap compared with a fixed disk, there
is an unusual backup method that can be employed here.  Format the disk with
two identically sized disk partitions, half of the disk being the "live"
and the other being the "on disk backup" then DISKCOPY or just plain COPY
partition to partition.

Backups to floppies using HD backup utilities like Quarterback seem to work
just fine, really no special considerations here, it looks like a hard disk
to Quarterback.

Alternative to tape backup units

Those tape backup units are wickedly expensive, and the media ain't cheap
either.  One of these Syquest units may be a reasonable alternative to a tape
backup unit.  Backup your fixed hard disk to a cartridge, probably much faster
than backup to tape.  Plus, the Syquest can be used as a direct access device
when you aren't doing backups, where the tape backups are essentially useless
except for backups.

Performance

The drive is quite fast.  The drive itself has an 8k buffer on board which
allows it to do 1:1 interleaving and do transfers from and to the controller
at high speeds (they say at 1.25 mb/sec, but I don't really know, it would
depend on the controller).

The average access time is given as "below 25 ms".  This feels about right, I've
seen slightly faster drives, but this is truly impressive performance for a
removable media device.  Sure beats the I*M (I've Been Misled) 68 ms 10 mb hard
drives.

Syquest vs Bernoulli

I looked at both Syquest and Bernoulli.  If you've read anything about
Bernoulli drives, they are quite impressive, and the new ones are 44mb.  I
found the price of the single drive Bernoulli to be about $400 more than
the Syquest (Syquest included a cartridge, Bernoulli doesn't).

		Syquest				Bernoulli

Capacity	44mb				44mb
Access times	less than 25 ms	average		"as fast as 20 ms average"???
Cost of media	$95 to $100 avg, $83 Mail order	$250 for 3 (only sold that way)
One company's $	$849 with one cartridge		$1149 NO CARTRIDGE

The Bernoulli quote from their literature "as fast as 20 ms average" sounds
suspicious.  Sounds like maybe the technical types did some futzing about and
were able to tweak the drive to make that number under certain circumstances.
I don't like qualified performance numbers, it usually means "your mileage may
vary".  The Syquest numbers are stated "less than 25 ms	average", no funny
wording or qualifications.  Buyer beware.

One last thing, these two drives are not the same.  Different cartridges,
entirely different head and disk technology.

UNIX

With UNIX V.4 just around the corner, and video, animation and so forth eating
multi-megabytes for lunch, I just couldn't justify the logic of buying a 60, 80
or 100+ megabyte fixed disk.  No matter what size I got, it seemed like it
wouldn't be big enough.

With the removable media, I can create a UNIX cartridge with just UNIX on it.
The way I currently have broken things up is to have a cartridge for video
and paint with all of the clipart and utilities that I need, a cartridge for
ProPage with it's fonts, clipart and so forth, and a cartridge for tele-
communication, network downloads and everything else.  I may split things
off as they get too big to their own cartridge.  I may end up with a games
cartridge (Dragon's Lair I and II - how many megabytes is that?).

The cartridge itself

44mb formatted capacity.  The cartridges list for $140, everyone seems to sell
them for between $95 and $100.  I have seen them mail order (Amiga mail-order
houses) for as little as $83.

It is completely sealed, with an access panel that is slid aside when inserted
into the drive.  It automatically re-seals itself when removed from the drive.
Each cartridge comes with it's own padded, heavy hard plastic carrying case
(quite nice really).

The cartridges come preformatted with bad sectors and/or bad tracks already
assigned.  The block range appears linear, however, there are 2 spare sectors
per track that are used for reassignment of bad sectors, and some number of
spare tracks available if there are entire tracks that are unusable.  So far,
I have been able to skip the GVP install's low-level format (already done by
Syquest) and GVP's bad block reassignment format step with no trouble.  The
bad block reassignment format done by GVP attempts to write and read back all
sectors, build a list of bad sector numbers and gives the list to the SCSI
drive (standard SCSI protocol feature to manually reassign bad sectors).  This
type of bad block reassignment is only needed if the manufacturer's bad block
assignment was incomplete, or a block went bad after a period of use.  Anyway,
Syquest seems to be doing a good job of preformatting the disks and reassigning
bad blocks and tracks.  I did run GVP's bad block reassignment format step on
one cartridge and it found nothing (it tells you if it finds bad sectors).

If you want/need to do these formats, here is the time required:

	Low-level format	      2 minutes, 40 seconds (not necessary)
	GVP's bad block reassignment 14 minutes (optional, doublecheck Syquest's
				                 bad block remapping)
	AmigaDOS FORMAT		     10 minutes, 30 seconds

Again, I found that only the last (AmigaDOS FORMAT) was required, as Syquest
does a low-level format and bad block remapping during manufacture.  If you
don't trust their remapping, spend the extra 16:40 doing the low-level format
and/or GVP's bad block reassignment step.

Price and what you get

GVP Impact 8/0 came with the EPROMS to support the removable media.  I was
told by GVP tech support that these same EPROMS also support tape backup.

GVP is currently running a sale until June 10, 1990 on their SCSI interface
boards, the price below is that price (see June AmigaWorld).

	GVP Impact 8/0 SCSI socketed for 8 meg ram	$225 (Was $399)
	Syquest 44mb removable media hard drive		$675
	Syquest 44mb cartridge				$ 95

							$995

Although the initial price of the drive is higher than a fixed disk, after the
third cartridge you are at break-even best I can determine.  And you have
unlimited off-line capacity.

I don't have anything to do with GVP, Syquest or anyone else mentioned here.
No stock, nothing.  I hope that this helps somebody who was interested in 
removable media.

 - Mark Jay Jones

I downloaded this from PLINK.  I have never dealt with these folks and do 
    not know if this a good deal or not.

mark

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----
AMIGA ZONE                 Sec:  2
Name : SYQUEST 44MB DRIVES   Num: 24,166
By:   CPU*KEN    Date:  8/04/90 11:59
Bytes:    1,175    Downloads:   11
Title:    LOW LOW PRICES ON SYQUEST 44MB DRIVES & CARTRIDGES
Keywords: SYQUEST  44MB   CPU INC.   REMOVABLE MEDIA   SCSI
-----
Press <return> for more 

SyQuest 44meg Removable media Sale!!

CPU Inc. is offering some special (limited time) prices
on SyQuest 44mb Removable media hard drives.  These are 5.25"
form factor drives and are great for those of you with lots of
graphics, digitized sounds or other data.  These SCSI devices
and will work with most popular SCSI Host Adpaters (such as
GVP, ICD, A2091, A2090A, Supra, C.Ltd, TrumpCard, etc.)
* * If you need a controller we can supuply that also! * *

These drives can be mounted internally in any of the A2000
family computers in the 5.25" drive bay or if you choose
you can purchase an external kit (case, power supply and cables)
so it can be used externally with the A200, A500, A1000 etc.
Each cartridge can be purchased separately and each one can
contain up to 44mb of data.  So when you fill up one just
pop in another cartridge to get another 44mb of space cheap....

The Bare SyQuest drive (with manual) is available for $539.00
Each cartridge can be purchased for only $89.00{ (shipping should be less than $16 for UPS ground in the
Press <return> for more 
  continental US)


* * COD CASH - Visa - MasterCard - Discover Card Only * *

contact:  CPU Inc.  5168 East 65th St, Indianapolis IN  46220

        (317) 577-3677

Sat. Noon-7:00pm   M-F Noon-8:00pm

For technical help ask for Ken

Remember this is a limited time offer at these prices.....
Get a great drive from a great Amiga Dealer..

CPU*Ken

(the file attached to this is the same text so no need to download
it too)