Atari8guy Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Hi All, I'm wondering about the reliability and longevity of syquest cartridges as used on the Atari. Any comments or thoughts? Anyone still using them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarian1 Posted March 27, 2013 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I still have my family of Syquest drives from the big 200MB 5.25" drives to the 270MB 3.5" drives. They still work great! No data loss yet. My units range from 15-20 years old. My original 44MB drive went bad because I left the cartridge in the drive too long (years!), so I guess the head got stuck or something. Amazingly, the cartridge still worked though! (when I used it on a working drive) Unfortunately, the EZ135 and Flyer 230 drives were not that well built, so those tend to have problems like flying drive heads. I don't know what's worse - flying drive heads or Iomega's click of death. (I still avoid Iomega products like a plague. Yes, I hold a grudge. ) Stick with the legacy drives, and you generally won't have a problem. Syquest Legacy drives are the 44, 88, 200MB 5.25" drives and the 105, 270MB 3.5" drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8guy Posted March 27, 2013 Author Share Posted March 27, 2013 Thanks, can you use any of them in the Megafile 44? I'd guess that you can, but you never know.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarian1 Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 No. The Megafile 44 will only use the original 5.25" 44MB cartridges. I actually replaced my original dead 44MB mechanism with a 200MB mechanism and it works great. The 200MB mechanism can read and write 44MB, 88MB and 200MB cartridges. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8guy Posted March 28, 2013 Author Share Posted March 28, 2013 Ah thanks, good to know. I will stay with the 44MB ones then. Upgrading at this point seems to cost a fortune just to find one.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8guy Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 I'm still using my Syquest with no issues, but I'm wondering if the noise the unit makes is normal. It's particularly loud and it's particularly loud especially by today's standards. Is that normal or do I have a bunked fan? Thanks.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarian1 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Yes, the Syquest drives (and many older hard drives) are quite noisy. I remember when I first got my first Syquest (which was also my first hard drive), I was surprised by the noise. This is from someone coming from a floppy only system where it only makes noise when it reads/writes to a floppy. Now it was a constant whirring noise that sometimes got to me. I swear it eventually affected my hearing but it could have been work related noise too, but I digress... You could try to change the fan to reduce the noise a bit, but the hard drive noise will still be there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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