EZ 135 Drive: Another alternative for flexible storage

EZ 135 Drive: Another alternative for flexible storage

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): There are three words that always stay on top of
the wish list of any serious computer user: Faster, bigger and
cheaper. The word durable doesn't even seem to be on this list,
since most computer users can't really expect to be using the
same components in three years time that they bought last week.

In the area of fixed storage media, for example, hard disk
capacity has increased tremendously. Go and try to get a new 540
MB hard disk today and, if you're lucky enough to get one, the
chances are it's not exactly brand new. On the market today, the
smallest new hard disks likely to be found that are sure to be
sparkling new will be the ones in the 850 MB range. In general,
one GB seems to be the current norm. A lot of new notebooks today
even come standard with a 720 MB hard disk.

All this seemingly ultra-spacious storage comes directly from
the vendors despite the current trends for more and more PCs and
notebooks to be offered with a built-in, high-speed CD ROM drive
and the ability to run more and more software directly from this
drive (CorelDRAW! 6.0 is one of the new software programs that
can be run from the CD ROM). So why do we need more storage
space? Because people want it bigger and faster, that's why. In
addition, multimedia files are space gobblers and people now keep
more and more of them on their computer.

In addition to the above trends, a booming market is also
emerging for removable storage media. There has already been much
discussion on the benefits of removable media, highlighting its
transportability, unlimited expandability, data security and low
cost per megabyte. Suffice it to say that removable cartridges
are increasingly in vogue these days.

In this area, removable drives based on the proven Winchester
technology are still favored because of their faster access rate,
although magneto-optical technology has improved significantly
enough for the performance of today's MO drives to be on a par
with the sub-20 msec hard disks of just a couple of years ago.

In the category of storage media, the ZIP drive from Iomega is
the de facto favorite among most users. Ever since its birth,
computer magazines have been using ZIP as the standard against
which they compare other removable storage devices. But now ZIP
may have a rival, who is none other than SyQuest!

EZ 135 Drive

After testing it, courtesy of PT Memori Primatama, it's pretty
obvious that this new EZ 135 Drive was intended to be SyQuest's
answer to the sudden and immense popularity of ZIP. SyQuest
removable drives and cartridges have been around for a long time,
and it must have given them a scare when ZIP's popularity
suddenly outstripped theirs. Two models are available, one is
internal and the other external. The internal one uses an IDE
interface, while the external type uses an SCSI 2.

The internal EZ 135 Drive's physical design is not different
from the older SQ270 or SQ105 models. The cartridge has a 3.5"
form factor, which is also no different from the older ones. It
can hold up to 135 MB. I tested the external type.

I first connected it to the AdvanSys AdvanSCSI card which was
already on my system. The drive was immediately recognized during
BIOS boot up. However, subsequently no volume label was assigned
to it, and it remained inaccessible. I wasn't even able to
install its software driver. It turned out that EZ 135 Drive's
software driver was not compatible with AdvanSys' ASPI manager
(an ASPI manager is the software that controls the SCSI
subsystem). Because of this incompatibility, I had to replace the
AdvanSys SCSI card with an Adaptec AHA 2940. I mounted both
Adaptec ASPI.SYS and ASPIDISK.SYS in the CONFIG.SYS. Only then
was I able to install SyQuest' driver properly. After that things
worked smoothly.

This experience tells us that EZ 135 Drive works well with the
very popular but rather expensive Adaptec AHA 2940. However it is
necessary to have Adaptec's EZ-SCSI software driver to enable it
to operate perfectly. Interestingly, Adaptec EZ-SCSI is not
bundled with AHA 2940; it has to be bought separately.

The EZ 135 Drive is adapted for use with a Mac. Just connect
it to a Macintosh's SCSI port with the supplied SCSI cable, and
the Mac will immediately recognize it. No software driver or
installation hassle is necessary.

On the plus side

The EZ 135 Drive has a power switch button, which the ZIP
drive doesn't. It allows us to power down the drive without
having to unplug the power adaptor. However, if you have a hard
disk with a larger SCSI ID number (for instance, your EZ 135
Drive is drive D: and your SCSI hard disk is drive E:), you'll
want to keep it powered up so that your hard disk won't become
drive D: resulting in your Windows not being able to find the E:
drive your applications not loading.

The case is sturdy. It measures 2.08" by 4.80" by 8.45" (HWL).
At 1.05 kg, it's heavy, too, as opposed to ZIP. The cartridge
looks similar to older 3.5" SyQuest cartridges, although they're
not interchangeable. The EZ 135 Drive will not take them in.

The access speed is this drive's strong point. SyQuest claims
that its average seek time is 13.5 msec, its burst data transfer
rate is 4.0 MB/sec, and its sustained maximum transfer rate is
2.4 MB/sec. With this kind of performance, we can install
application software on this drive and still get a snappy
response.

If you use the internal model, you won't have to buy a SCSI 2
adaptor. You can even use it as the boot drive for your system.

On the downside

The external EZ 135 Drive is actually an internal drive that
comes with SyQuest's own case. Because of this, it is bulkier
than it should be. ZIP, on the other hand, is meant to be an
external drive, and therefore the design is more streamlined and
more attractive. SyQuest still paints the case traditional dark
gray, while Iomega chose a more attractive and up-to-date dark
blue for its ZIP cases.

Furthermore, unlike ZIP, EZ 135 Drive cannot be put on its
side. I wish that SyQuest had designed the external case so that
the drive can be positioned vertically. It can be done with ZIP,
and it saves some desktop space.

Finally, given the size of the case, I suppose that, actually,
the power adaptor could be built in so that the drive could be
made more portable. Finally, inserting and ejecting the cartridge
are tedious processes. With the ZIP, there's just one button to
press. With the EZ 135 Drive two operations are involved.

Final word

If speed is crucial the EZ 135 Drive is a good choice. At less
than Rp750,000 for a package containing the drive, a blank 135 MB
cartridge, a power adaptor, and a SCSI cable, it's reasonably
priced. You will need to have a compatible SCSI adaptor on your
system, though. If you work with both a PC and a Mac, the EZ 135
Drive will fit the bill nicely, because it is perfectly plug-and-
play friendly with the Mac.

In many aspects, the ZIP is better. Unfortunately it is not
widely available here in Jakarta, which means there may be
difficulty finding technical support if the drive fails or if one
encounters incompatibility problems. On the other hand, SyQuest
EZ 135 Drives are widely available because SyQuest now has two
big distributors for Indonesia. It means that good technical
support should be available. Besides, at less than Rp 80,000 per
cartridge, the EZ 135 Drive's price/performance ratio is
comparable with ZIP. Therefore, if you need a removable storage
medium today for scanned images and scanned text for
documentation purposes, large databases, DTP files, fast backup,
or a video and sound clips collection, the EZ 135 Drive is your
best bet.