|
|
|
Complete listing of June 1996 reviews
By Joel T. Patz
If you had a tape cartridge for the Pereos in your pocket, you'd feel like a spy. The tape cartridge is amazingly tiny-0.85 by 1.18 by 0.20 inches-but can hold 1 gigabyte of compressed data. Measuring 4 by 2.4 by 1.87 inches, the Pereos unit itself is smaller than two packs of playing cards. It also weighs less than 10 ounces, including the two AA batteries that can provide about six hours of power (an AC battery adapter is also supplied).
Installation couldn't be simpler: Plug the base into your PC and install Datasonix's two-diskette backup software. I was ready to go in less than five minutes.
The proprietary software is, alas, flawed and limited. Datasonix's standard backup software handles only typical backup chores (a more sophisticated backup utility costs $79.95). You can select all files or use wildcards; there's also a fuzzy search option, but its results were sometimes peculiar.
I backed up over 169MB in 3,588 files on my Epson ActionNote laptop at a rate of just under 7MB per minute with compression turned on. If you have an enhanced parallel port, Datasonix says you can get backup speeds of up to 10MB per minute.
The unit operates so quietly you may even forget it's there. But when you run the backup software, you can't run anything else. I tried browsing through my hard disk using Explorer at the same time, and the backup software stopped dead in its tracks. The documentation is skimpy, and you may find the limited software annoying. For the money, though, nothing as small does as big a job.
Info File
Datasonix Pereos for Windows 95
Price: $499
Pros: Size
Cons: Backup software
Platforms: Windows 95, 3.1x
Datasonix Corp.
800-328-2779, 303-545-9500
WinMag Box Score 2.5
|
|
|