ORB drives: another reader's impressions; more follow-ups

ORB 1.0.1 (for SCSI) is out; Tools not yet included Use this ftp link to get it. The link on the Castlewood Systems web page is incorrect. Another "error": while the web page implies that this download includes ORB Tools, it in fact only has the ORB driver. The Tools software is expected any day (although given this vendor's history of delays, I would not hold my breath). (Thanks, Edmond Lai and others.)

Another reader's "review" David Snedigar, who was a beta tester for ORB Drives, was just told by Castlewood Systems that "we are supposed to ship Mac ORB drives in volume in the next week or two." ORB Tools should also be posted to their web site in this same time frame. In the mean time, David offers these comments from his experiences with a beta version of the drive:

SCSI cable The SCSI cable that came with the drive would not "lock" on the drive. This seemed to cause avariety of SCSI-related symptoms. Using a third party cable worked fine. [According to Castlewood, this cable has been changed to fix this.]

Power Supply "The brick isn't as large or heavy as the one that came with the original Zip drive. But the weird thing is that the connector plug that goes into the orb is long and straight - at least 2" long - and plugs into the middle of the back of the drive directly between the 2 SCSI-2 ports. This is fine if you have the proper cables, but if you have to use any kind of adapter (e.g., a Centronix 50 to SCSI 2 adapter) on the drive, the plug gets in the way. I suggested they move this plug and haven't heard a response."

SCSI ID selection The SCSI ID is selected via means of a sliding switch on the right side of the drive. You have a choice of ID's 0, 4, 5, or 6. First, why even give an option for 0 when it is bound to cause just a flood of tech support nightmares from novice users? Second, while the selector switch is easy to access, it's hard to tell what ID you have it set on because there are no indicator arrows or pointers to show you. You have to "feel" the clicks as you slide it from one end to the other to set the ID. So if I want to set it to 5, I slide it all the way to the right and then go one click back. A simple line pointing to the ID would have helped. I also think that the whole Idea of a sliding switch on the side makes it far too easy to accidentally bump and change the SCSI ID without notice."

Bottom line Other than that, I really like it. How else are you going to get that kind of removable capacity for the money? Reliability will be the real test - and only time will tell that. I carried a disk in my shirt pocket for a couple of weeks back and forth to work and never had a problem with it. I highly recommend picking one up. They are going to be the next big thing.

Formatting ORB cartridges: a follow-up Regarding the question of formatting ORB cartridges with utilities other than the (as yet unavailable) ORB Tools (as noted in our previous posting):

Michael Gessler writes: "According to the Charismac Anubis 3.01e documentation, it supports the ORB."

Allan Levy was among those that had trouble getting a PC-formatted ORB disk to mount on his Mac. He had problems both with Drive Setup 1.7.2 and HDT. However, Silverlining 5.8.3 worked. He can even boot from the ORB disk now.

David Snedigar adds: "All of the people I have been able to personally converse with who have been successful in formatting PC disks with Drive Setup are using EIDE ORB drives."