From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Aug 22 19:08:58 1995 Return-Path: hackers-owner Received: (from majordom@localhost) by freefall.FreeBSD.org (8.6.11/8.6.6) id TAA00865 for hackers-outgoing; Tue, 22 Aug 1995 19:08:58 -0700 Received: from gateway.airmail.net ([204.178.72.51]) by freefall.FreeBSD.org (8.6.11/8.6.6) with ESMTP id TAA00858 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 1995 19:08:53 -0700 Received: (from jbryant@localhost) by gateway.airmail.net (8.6.11/8.6.9) id VAA01722 for freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org; Tue, 22 Aug 1995 21:08:52 -0500 From: Jim Bryant Message-Id: <199508230208.VAA01722@gateway.airmail.net> Subject: magneto-optical drives To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 21:08:51 -0500 (CDT) Content-Type: text Content-Length: 2293 Sender: hackers-owner@freebsd.org Precedence: bulk Is anyone working on drivers for magneto-optical drives? Is there an existing driver that will work with magneto-optical drives? If neither, then I will probably end up writing one. I've had bad luck with tapes lately, nothing to do with FreeBSD, just simple aging, tape degradation, etc... I recently bought an IBM MTA-3230 3.5" 230M magneto optical drive at Computer City for like $499... Given that the cartridges store more, are random access, and signifigantly faster than worms, cd-roms, or floppy-tape, as well as data-retention time in excess of 50 years [i'll believe that when i see it!], I think that paying around twice as much as for tapes can be justified by some [ME!].... Jordan, if nobody is doing a driver or has a driver, mind if I do it? Supposedly the 171 page manual for this drive is on the way from IBM... BTW: this drive is also packaged in a decent SCSI case, is easily removed for internal mounting, comes with one formatted cartridge with the apple [ARGH!] drivers on it. The OEM for the drive is NuDesign and is in the apple section of the stores... I am not plugging NuDesign here, as a matter of fact, they have the most unhelpful and unfriendly technical department I have ever had the displeasure to work with. When I finally asked for the IBM support number for the drive, they didn't just give the wrong number, but they were off by several states... They do have the reference manual for the drive, but refuse to even photocopy it for someone writing a driver. After spending over an hour on the phone, I finally tracked down the proper IBM phone number and department, which happens to be just down the road from NuDesign. IBM was much more helpful. The IBM drive is decent though, and even has a faster sequential transfer rate than my 4x cd-rom. My recommendation is to call IBM for the names of other OEMs for this drive other than NuDesign... The IBM name for the drive is the ImageStar 230 [model #: MTA-3230]. Jim -- All opinions expressed are mine, if you | "I will not be pushed, stamped, think otherwise, then go jump into turbid | briefed, debriefed, indexed, or radioactive waters and yell WAHOO !!! | numbered!" - #1, "The Prisoner" jbryant@gateway.airmail.net, System administrator, Internet America