All - Re: Nomai disk testing
No, I don't have any disks or results yet. But I did get an interesting e-mail message today, from a guy with several years of experience as an engineer doing testing of disk drives and media. Isn't the Internet great?
Anyway, he has given me permission to quote some of what he had to say on this subject.
Here's his message:
If you test aÿ Nomai disk, you will likely find that it appears to work as reported by Nomai.ÿ In other words, you are unlikely to establish that Iomega's claims are correct.ÿ Without special equipment for studying the Zip drive heads, looking for excess wear, head particle build up, or particles in the Zip disk wipers, you are unlikely to notice the damage without several hours of head on time.ÿ Of course, by the time you notice a problem the damage is done.
If you really want to verify that the disks are dangerous, and you don't mind losing a drive...ÿ I can make available to you a test application which verifies the integrity of the entire drive system.ÿ By that I mean that it determines how reliable the drive is under the current system -- including the affect of the computer, operating system, cables, media, drive, firmware, driver, humidity, temperature, and dust.
With a good Zip drive and disk, you should be able to run it for
months without any hiccups.ÿ With a good Zip drive and a Nomai disk, as a guess, I'd wager you would see problems within a week.
I don't know what Iomega has seen with the Nomai disks.ÿ I'm merely
guessing based on past experience.
End of Message
He makes several good points, no? Especially since the fact is that I DO mind losing a drive, when all is said and done. I'm not sure what to do when I receive the XHD disks. One thing I am really curious about is whether any of the Zip drives I have access to will just summarily reject the Nomai disks. Especially the newest one, my Zip Plus.
I know that patent infringement is the more serious issue here, but I think the compatibility question makes a difference as well.
- Allen |
