OnStream DI-30 30GB Digital Drive

by OnStream

Product Details

Product Manual [329kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000300CJ
• Item model number: DI30-01
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The OnStream DI30 internal IDE (ATAPI) drive with OnStream Echo software is the ideal removable storage solution for desktops and power desktops. The OnStream DI30 Removable Storage Drive works in Windows just like any other drive, giving you access files to files from any application. With 30 GB of capacity per cartridge, you can forget about high media costs or the inconvenient "backup shuffle" you get with other removable storage products. And you can finally back up today's large hard drives on one cartridge.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally: affordable, *reliable* consumer-level tape backup, January 18, 2000

By 

Andrew N. Carpenter "philosopher" (Westminster, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: OnStream DI-30 30GB Digital Drive (Personal Computers)

After having been disappointed with earlier consumer-grade tape backup solutions (QIC-80, QIC-WIDE, etc.), I am extremely pleased with the Onstream ADR's convenience, reliability, and feature set.

The drive's ADR cartridge holds 15GB uncompressed/30GB uncompressed. Unlike other cartridges I have used, the drive and its cartridges have withstood six months of daily use.

Speed is acceptable for a consumer using the EIDE drive; I get between 12-25mb per minute, depending on what other applications are running. The SCSI drives have approximately double this speed.

The software is terrific. It constructs a database that treats the tape cartridge as a hard disk -- you can drag-and-drop from the cartridge to the hard disk and can even run programs from tape (albeit slowly, although it is quick enough to playback MPEG, RealMedia, and some other multimedia files). The database feature also keeps track of each version of each file backed up and allows you to select exactly which version you want to restore.

In addition to the drag-and-drop operation, the Onstream comes with excellent traditional backup and restore software. It handles timed backups very well, and will shut down windows if you want it to bakcup every evening but don't want to keep your computer on all night.

For the price, the convenience and reliability are remarkable. Given the speed, the EIDE drive is probably best for consumer-level backup, but it is well suited for this indeed.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cybermedia Uninstaller and this drive, January 26, 2000

By 

Methylbromide "Book lover" (Northwest United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: OnStream DI-30 30GB Digital Drive (Personal Computers)

This is a great drive. Makes creating and managing backups a snap. Because it will also track multiple iterations of a document over time, you can "back-track" to an earlier version if needed. Top flight performance for the price.

However, because the tape drive is treated just like another hard disk, some of your other applications may behave oddly.

An example, Cybermedia Uninstaller tries to scan _every_ drive before it will load. If you have a lot of material backed up on your OnStream TBU, Uninstaller will try to scan it. Very, very slowly. (Remeber, the OnStream is about 1/50 the speed of a hard drive. I have a machine on which Uninstaller is now useless because it would take two days to scan the tape.) If you live by Uninstaller, consider a different backup option (or a different removal program, CleanSweep is very good). Sorry, I have not tested this TBU with other removal software (e.g. Norton Uninstall, Remove-It, CleanSweep).