Great buy for under $70: Works for me!
Written: Apr 01 '00 (Updated May 05 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap, 1 GB cartridges, Easy setup, Cheap cartridges (if you can find them), Looks sharp
Cons: Company out of business
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| isong's Full Review: SYQT SyQuest SparQ (SPARQ1AI-01) Drive |
ABOUT SYQUEST:
Syquest used to be a competitor of Iomega. They offered many removable drives and media to the market which worried Iomega. Well, that's not the case any more. Syquest went out of business. Even a year ago, various auctions sites where trying to get rid of them for under $70. I actually bought mine for $90 which included shipping and handling. The main reason for buying this was to transport large files from work to home and back to work again.
EASY INSTALLATION:
Once I received the package, I opened it and found the external Sparq drive, 1 GB starter cartridge, parallel cable, power adapter, and a plastic stand for the drive. The instructions were simple. The setup required you to connect your drive and power it up. The setup disks (3.5" disks) allowed the Sparq drive to take up a drive letter on your computer. Once your computer detected the Sparq drive, you were able to access the 1 GB cartridge just like your hard drive. Accessing about 10 MB took a little under 20 seconds. Not bad.
WHAT ABOUT SUPPORT???
Although Syquest is no longer in business, they offer online support via their web page. Just go to: http://www.syquest.com. I don't know their response time, since I never had to use it to this day. I would have to say some type of support is better than no support at all.
EXTRA CARTRIDGES:
Since Syquest is no longer in business, the 1 GB Sparq cartridges are no longer manufactured. But, there are many computer stores that are willing to get rid of their Syquest surplus for dirt cheap. I went on the Internet and found a 3-pack of Sparq cartridges for under $40. That's a pretty good deal if you calculate the cost (cost/MB)! I wouldn't pay more than $20 per cartridge. Just recently, I went to Frys Electronics and found that they were trying to sell the 1 GB Sparq cartridges for $89.95 a piece!!! That's highway robbery!
ANY PROBLEMS???
I've owned my Syquest Sparq drive for about a year now. I take it with me just about every day. It's pretty easy to set up and very easy to unplug and take back home. For those of us who don't have high speed Internet access from home but do have it at work, this is a great way to transport files. I also use it to back up crucial data.
I haven't had any major problems yet. Once, the drive wouldn't read one of my cartridges, so I turned the drive off and then turned it back on. I ejected the cartridge and reinserted it. That solved my problem. The transfer rate varies depending on the speed of your computer, as well. The data transfer is much quicker on my Pentium III 500 MHz than on my AMD K6-2 450 MHz computer.
WARRANTY:
This product usually came with a one-year factory warranty, but since Syquest isn't around any more, you may need to ask for warranty information from the store you purchase it from. Usually, they will give you a 30-day defective-return guarantee.
SUMMARY:
I've read some previous Epinions about the Syquest Sparq drive and I saw some mixed reviews. I hear some people having many problems with it, but there are also others who are satisfied with them just like I am. But take a look at the Epinions on the Iomega Jaz drive. They, too, are 1 GB drives but it shows they are only recommended about 30% of the time compared to about 50% recommendation rate of Sparq drives...
I only recommend the Syquest Sparq drive if you're on a tight budget. It'll be pretty hard to find nowdays, but if you do, make sure you don't pay more than $60 for one. I think you can find it at: http://www.onsale.com. If you can get it for any price below that, you're getting a bargain. I've gotten my money's worth out of my Sparq drive already.
If you're looking for a removable storage drive that stores a lot (1 GB or more on one cartridge), look into the Orb Drives. Each Orb cartridge holds 2.2 GB. The Orb drive comes either in the parallel port version or a SCSI version. Yes, the company who makes Orb is still in business and I believe they will be for some time to come.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
isong
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 - Top 500 |
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Member: Ingi
Location: Beaverton, Oregon
Reviews written: 58
Trusted by: 178 members
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