Drive inventory

From: Fred Cisin <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
Date: Thu Feb 14 16:59:48 2002

[Iomega Ditto 3200 "easy"]
> > > A write-only device.
> > What's the purpose of a write-only backup device???
To make you miserable and unable to recover data.
> Um... he means that it's not very reliable. A polite way of
> saying that you'd be better off backing up to a _real_ write-only
> device, like a terminal, or your system's "null device." :)

I bought one NEW (why would I ever do THAT?)
I bought a dozen tapes.
I copied data onto 3 tapes.
I tried to use a Verbatim "extra length" tape, which would be more than 2G
capacity (>4G supposedly with compression). It formatted for more than a
day and gave a few hundred K capacity.
I TRIED to contact Iomega about whether they had updated drivers that
would support it.
Their telephone maze will NOT connect you with a human in ANY
department. They will connect at x$ per minute, "but will credit back if
the unit was actually defective from the factory"
Their website would NOT connect you with anybody, in any way.
They save a fortune on tech support.

A year later (NOT from Iomega), I got drivers that would supposedly work!
The drive would no longer work at all.
Iomega (cornered at Comdex) would not consider an out-of-warranty repair
or replacement (neither free, nor for money) , and said that they no
longer supported that model "because it was discontinued SO LONG AGO" (1
year post-purchase is too far back to support)

So,...
The drive lasted long enough to WRITE a few tapes, but NEVER successfully
read a single tape.
"WRITE ONLY"


When they discontinued it, they continued to support their "2 Gigabyte"
model, but NOTHING that would read those tapes.


I think that I finally gave some of the tapes to Frank, and sold the rest
of the tapes at Foothill. My asking price was twice as high for the tapes
as it was for the tapes plus drive.


I also think that it is total bullshit to market such on the capacity that
is "expected" with compression. It is a 1.5 Gigabyte device, NOT 3.2.
Received on Thu Feb 14 2002 - 16:59:48 GMT