Does anybody use REV disks?

[Y888099]

so, now a few customers want to replace their tapes with REV disks (by Iomega).
REV? What's it? Never heard before.

[jan-jaap]

It's like the Iomega Jazz etc, removable disks of something like 30GB. We had one as a server backup way back when that server was a Pentium III, I still have the device and a stack of disks somewhere but never used it. I think they stopped selling disks for it more than 5 years ago so to move to that platform now? I wouldn't.

[Y888099]

=move to that platform now? I wouldn't.

It's not my decision. A few customers have asked REV 35GB support for their internal use, probably because their company has been acquired by an another company, merged together(1), and now they have a lot of backups on REV cartridges.

BTW, does the REV SCSI drive support 50-pin SCSI connections? Because they want SCSI drives, the current equipment (e.g. Jazz, Zip, DVD-RAM) is all 50-pin/SE, while the SCSI version of Iomega-REV is a 68-pin LVD/SE drive.

(1) Why do companies merge with or acquire other companies? I wonder ... from my point of view problems of both sides are also merged together, resulting more troubles for who has to provide support to them

[japes]

A technology that was discontinued 7+ years ago? I would encourage them to move any archive data off and pick a modern media. If you're providing service where you need to read/write those I hope you price yourself accordingly.

[Y888099]

I would encourage them to move any archive data off and pick a modern media

Exactly what I am trying to do! Do you really believe they really really listen to the last consultant?

[Raion-Fox]

Your clients are clueless morons. They should stay on widely available standards.

[Y888099]

Your clients are clueless morons. They should stay on widely available standards.

I won't judge their reasons motivations and needs, both the companies are affiliated with avionic business, which is known of having its reasons under the hood, and its own standards and rules.

back to topic, does the REV SCSI drive (which is 68p SE/LVD) support 50-pin SCSI connections?

Yes? No? Maybe?

If No, I will buy the Atapi version of REV 35GB, and I will adapt it pATA -> SCSI50 trough an ACARD kit.

[japes]

ON TOPIC: SCSI devices in general will negotiate down. A device like the REV 35 drive would certainly be expected to work on a narrow bus. I would try the SCIS 68-pin drive on a narrow bus before even considering using a protocol adapter like the ACARD.

I hope you have some customers that have moved past 2000s era technology. Geez, 50-pin scsi?

Exactly what I am trying to do! Do you really believe they really really listen to the last consultant?

I think they listened to one 10 years ago, or some guy that loved his JAZ drive at home said "let's get this new REV drive, it's going to be great, and it's cheap...not like those tried and true archival mediums....besides they're faster and we can random access the data." And it's not that guy's problem anymore, they bought 400 cartridges to do daily backups and now someone feels married to this solution.

I hope you're just not telling us that this is the archive refresh department and they're restoring as much archive material as they can to put back on a stable platform.

[Y888099]

While the REV™ SCSI drives have been tested with 50-pin SCSI adapter cards

So, will it work? I have to buy a few units, because I can't touch their equipment

[skywriter]

I find it difficult to believe at low capacity, low volume technology (tech under discussion), will ever outpace a high capacity, high volume (modern HDD)

[Raion-Fox]

I usually tell customers I have on freelance we can keep them on legacy tech, but only if it's practical for me and my rates - I charge higher prices for dealing with shit like this in order to force a move off for the customers. I've moved a lot of customers off stuff like this to widely available stuff, like iSCSI, FibreChannel, etc. They hate me at first, but they thank me years on for the amount of flexibility this tech usually provides.

[Y888099]

A look at the modern data storage industry can make your head spin. From a variety of hard drives, efficient disk arrays, magnetic tapes, conventional or emulated tape libraries (tape on CF) to such miracles of modern technology like RDX formats. It appears that you have a lot of choices – but this can be very misleading, especially when you take a closer look at the very bottom. Then you find out that almost always there is a disk or tape.

They don't want tapes. They want randomly access media.

So, what are you suggesting?

• Flash Drives? CFs? SD cards? USB Pendrives?
  Yup the newest medium available, ranging in size from under one gigabyte to at least 256GB
• 2.5" External Hard Disk Drives (sATA)?
  Yup, portability—some as small as a deck of playing cards

Regarding size, 10..20GB is enough for their needs.


p.s.
DEV is also ok because it supports UFS filesystem, like it was a DVD-RAM, which is the native support offered by Doors.

[Raion-Fox]

No tapes huh. Then your best bet would either be a RAID-10 SSD array for redundancy and speed, or you can go for a simpler solution of USB externals. Up to you