On Sunday 29 August 2004 06:25 pm, Dustin Decker wrote:

...

Anyway, he cited DVD-RAM, Magneto-Optical devices and compared them to the CD/DVD RW discs for their superior durability. What do these devices cost these days, Jason? How about the media for them?

These are generally a bit more expensive.

Than what?

If you can afford to go USB or Firewire with a pair of external drives you can rotate through (at around $300.00 - $500.00 each depending on what you buy and where) you might find yourself in better shape.

120-160G USB/FireWire drives are down under $200 now, with USB-only cheaper still.

Again, can't really speak on these, but I expect they're doing their own proprietary format on a regular 4.7GB piece of media.

Like I said, the size indicates they'd be double-sided, so it's just a question of whether they're bragging that you can use a double-sided disk and turn it over, or if they actually have dual heads and can read/write both sides without removing the disk. Format would be standard, so no need to worry about propietary hardare. These days I would think that you'd have a better chance of replacing that failed RAID controller from ebay or somewhere. Do a search of newsgroups for someone who has one and does/doesn't like it and offer to trade them straight up for a current Adaptec or something like that.