[jreades]

I've been looking into purchasing some kind of big (capacity) removable media drive for backing up high-res scans, updaters, and so on.

I had planned to go with a Jaz drive, but a little research turned up the <A HREF="http://www.castlewoodsystems.com/castlewood/web/index. htm ">ORB</A> from Castlewood Systems. $199, 2.2GB, $30/disk and a 12Mbps throughput make it a <U>lot</U> more attractive than the Jaz. I don't really care about compatability as I'll be using the drive for my own backups and can always carry it around if need be.

BUT... I can't find anyone else who has used one. Or knows someone who has used one. Any takers?

TIA.

[abrody]

Neither! Orb and Jaz are both based on Magnetic media. Both are subject to head crashes, and both have trouble with dust enterring the drive. If you need a format that reads and writes and is removable first consider CD-R, then DVD-RAM, and then the up and coming new technology from MaxOptic the 40GB optical at: http://www.maccentral.com/news/9904/13.optical.shtml.

CD-R while only write once per track, it can be written multiple sessions until the CD is full, and is by far the cheapest and most widely used medium for data transfer in the CD-ROM format. Each CD-R can cost as little as 50 cents to purchase, and stores 650MB. With no reason for failure except users scratching its undersides, it is the most sturdy medium there is as well. Drives start at $260 from APSTech http://www.apstech.com.

DVD-RAM - Read and writable DVD drives now exist for as little as $600 from APS with disks costing around $30. Storage is 5.2GB. Unfortunately the DVD format may soon give way to a new 17GB format due to be released once the movie industry stops preventing it. Read on. DVD-RAM drives read CD-ROM disks as well. Still with all the DVDs floating around it may or may not be a bad idea to get it.

Stick to CD-R and you can't go wrong if you get the software called Toast to come with the drive. If you have time to wait, watch the optical prices fall, CD-R should give way to really amazing technology in the future.

Sincerely,
[email protected]

[jreades]

Just a quick thank you for your input on this... it's strange how much more difficult the decision gets once it's your money and not your employer's. ;^)

But to counter a couple of your points for discussion's sake:
1. CD-WRs are unreadable by normal CD-ROM drives and have a relatively high failure rate (this doesn't affect CD-Rs... which makes that a pretty tempting first/second choice).
2. MOs have, by all accounts, lower MTBFs than even CD-RWs and the three people I know who have used them have all discarded them in favour of other technologies...

And some additional points to counter my own:
1. Jaz drives and disks are _really_ expensive for what you get.
2. My roomate says he saw the ORB at MacWorld SF two years ago and it felt like a Fisher Price toy. He also says that Castlewood is owned by the founders of SyQuest. Need I say more?

Curses!

jon

[LoungeFly]

I understand that magnetic media drives like the Jazz and ORB are prone to head crashes and dust problems.

However, I want to be able to store large media files (AvidCinema and maybe iMovie) that won't fit on a 650 MB CD-R. I also like the ability to write and rewite my files if I want to, something that the CD-R won't allow.

Given that I need a backup / storage solution now (meaning I don't want to wait around for MaxOptic's 40GB optical), are there pros/cons between the Jazz and ORB drives that people are willing to share?

I've searched the forum archives and read the old posts about Castlewood's driver problems back in the fall.

Anyone care to update their experiences or add new information?

Thanks.

We have had too many problems with ORB to recommend it. We too back up large M100 files and writing seemed to work but copying a file BACK from the ORB was a crap-shoot.

We also are looking for the NEXT Jaz or other simple, affordable, reliable rewritable 2gig+ capacity format for graphics and other backups that can be easily accessd on the desktop.

BTW, we use AIT for all our media and project backups, but to simply call up a logo or animation, the AIT is to inconvenient.

Still looking as well,

------------------
Rich Rubasch
Madison Productions

visit our site www.mpitime.com

[drfrank]

I have had a Jaz drive for two years and only had one bad disk problem (Iomega replaced the disk free). I purchased an Orb SCSI drive thinking I could replace the Jaz.

However, The Orb had to be returned after 2-weeks of use for a replacement, it made a disk unusable and it had to be replaced, and the replacement drive would not work properly with any of the drivers from Castlewood.

The Orb drive is now gone and the Jaz is still working without any problems. I would not recommend the Orb drive to anyone I believe it was designed for use with PC's not Mac's .

I see that they are now trying to sell a Firewire Orb (same disk size) for $500 !

Frank

[exa]

Lots of problems with the Orb, so don't go with it. Jaz drives are a tad bit more reliable, but still, disks can corrupt.

CDRW media CAN be read on normal cd-roms as long as they are multi read. My 24x in my biege g3 reads cdrws, of course, at 4x read speed. The cdrw drive can read the disc at full speed. And I don't know how it has a high failure rate, none of my cdrws messed up [yet].

[ussfolsom]

Well I must just be the exception. I've had my Orb drive since October and it has been great. No problems with disks, I have three of them. Just prior to purchasing the Orb I borrowed a friends Jaz drive to transfer some files. I bought a, rather expensive, disk at my local Apple reseller. I came home put the disk in, began to copy the files and discovered it was a corrupt disk. Well that was enough for me. I went with the Orb and I couldn't be happier.

I must be lucky too. I've had my ORB for about 4 months now. I have 4 disk with no problems at all. In fact, I'm buying another disk today.

Well I must be really lucky. I've had a Jaz drive for 3 years now and I've NEVER had a problem, and for the last five months I've had a scsi cdr, scanner AND the Jaz hooked to my DVSE with the MicroTech USBScSi adapter(the toktok sound you just heard was me knocking wood...)Ya the disks ARE expensive even in the multipacks, but I can't beat the convenience of multigig copying for the short term projects I've got going. And usually I save the compressed vid files to a CDR when I want to go to archived storage...A bit off topic but does anyone have a recommendation for a firewire to scsi adapter? I'd like to be able to get the Jaz onto the Imac with a little faster through-put

[MacOS761]

I have a PC user friend (but he's very nice to Macs, mind you) who owns an external 1GB Jaz and an internal Orb. I have been using the Jaz now that he got the Orb, and I am pleased but crave more. He is extremely happy with the Orb. I think it's very unfortunate that Castlewood had so many problems in the last few months, but from what I have read things are ok now. I believe that if onw buys a new Orb and uses the latest drivers, all will be well. This is what I am planning to do, so I have a bias in saying that, but of the dissatisfied, who has had problems with drives bought within the last month and/or a few months old with the latest drivers?
Orb was the project of Iomega founders who were (are) unhappy that it costs $10 for a Zip disk and what, $150 for a 2GB Jaz (?). The project was "vaporware" for the longest time to make it the best... sounds like and OS I know of. If I am wrong, please tell me, but I would have to reccommend the Orb to myself and anybody else!

[Rick Johnson]

I got a SCSI Orb when they first came out. I had some trouble at first, but much of this was because of changes (improvements) in the drivers. I lost all of the data on one of my discs, but Castlewood replaced my drive and my cartridges. It's worked flawlessly ever since. The only problem is that OS X has poor SCSI support, so I can only do backups in OS 9. SCSI Orb drives work great for some people under OS X, but for others (ike me) the cartridges won't mount.

Rather than booting into OS 9 every time I back up, I'll probably get a FireWire adapter for my SCSI Orb to do my regular backups. I believe it's worth it.