OnStream ECHO 30 USB Storage Drive
The drive is very sleek and looks high-tech itself. The silver metallic finish gives it a nice ‘back from the future’ look. Installation isn’t a problem, just plug-in the USB cable to your machine and you’re done.
The Technology
Advanced Digital Recording (ADR) is an all-new, variable speed, digital tape storage solution. Initially developed by Philips Electronics and protected by 61 patents (including pending), ADR is based on revolutionary 8-channel array technology that allows the solid-state design to read and write eight tracks of data simultaneously.
This technological breakthrough delivers exceptional transfer rates and data reliability while maximizing media life and minimizing audible noise.
An advanced embedded servo system contributes to high data reliability in two ways. First, it communicates with the head to assure media integrity as it writes data. This is an innovative way to avoid media defects and assure original data is written correctly. Secondly, the servo system prevents the tape from wandering off track, which could make the data unreadable in the future.
OnStream’s unique ability to read or write all eight tracks of data simultaneously provides the opportunity to spatially distribute error correction code – both horizontally and vertically.
This greatly enhances the chances for data recovery versus other technologies that use only horizontal methods. The result is a reliability specification of only one unreadable bit in every 1019 bits recorded. That’s 10,000 times better than the PC’s primary data storage device, the hard disk drive.
ADR drives employ continuously variable speeds between .5 and 2 MB/sec, making them capable of adjusting to the constantly changing data rate of the system. This feature, acting like a dimmer switch as it accepts data, also helps to decrease wear and noise.
The Software
The software for the drive is called ‘ECHO’ and can be used to carry out backups of your local hard drive according to a pre-planned schedule. In a local machine the software let’s you access the drive through Win Explorer with a regular drive letter. But in a network environment a drive has to be mapped to each machine that is to be backed up. You cannot just attach it to a server & then back up the drives. This is somewhat of a drawback in the ECHO software when compared to other available back up software in the market, which have better network backup features.
