ThinkClassic

Mk.558

Member

Registered: 2014-07-08

Posts: 160

Magneto-optical drive: speed test

I'm looking to fill in a field for the Data Transfer Rates section of the Guide, and also I'm just curious how fast/slow they are.

I figure someone has at least one, whether it's on a NeXT box or an external SCSI interface it won't matter. The speed test goes like this:

1.) Record the size of the file to be transferred
2.) Start a stopwatch at the same time the transfer starts: i.e. when the mouse button is released in a drag & drop operation, the Enter key for command line, etc.
3.) Copy the file to another location, preferably a RAM disk or a hard disk. Something intrinically faster. Record the time.
4.) Then copy the same file back to the MO drive, while recording the time as well.
5.) State system specs: i.e. IIvx, System 7.0.1, 20MB RAM, copied to and from from internal hard drive.

I've heard that M-O drives are slow, but only on writes. Some metrics for posterity would be nice.

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trag

Member

Registered: 2015-01-07

Posts: 12

Re: Magneto-optical drive: speed test

It's been a long time, but back in the 90s, I compared performance between a Fujitsu DynaMO drive and the floppy drive in an original Pentium desktop computer.   The performance seemed about equal.

However, that data is really old and my memory is crumbly and unreliable.