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The Ecrix VXA review (page 38 in this issue) is an important one. This isn't to say that other reviews won't be of comparable importance-indeed, all product reviews will be run as if a company's future sales count on it, but the Ecrix VXA review is the first and may be something of a model for future reviews. At the risk of giving the wrong impression, let me make it clear that my goal in reviewing products for Computer Technology Review has little to do with helping or hurting a company's sales. The goal is not to enhance or reduce my reputation as a reviewer. My primary goal in writing reviews is the same today as it was nearly two decades ago when I wrote my first review-to give an honest, balanced evaluation that can be used by the reader to make an educated decision whether to buy or use a reviewed product or not.
Developing a fair review of the Ecrix VXA-1 drive presented a number of challenges, some of which forced reexamination of the test platform. The VXA-1 unit I reviewed is configured as an External SCSI drive. Connecting and configuring the drive were, as expected, pretty easy. My test system used an Adaptec 2940U2W host bus adapter. Using an internal cable included with the adapter, I was able to connect the external cable coming from the Ecrix drive to the end of the internal cable. I know this may sound confusing-the special cable has two connectors for internal drives and an external connector that mounts to the back of the computer and that can be used for connection to 50 pin mini-- SCSI connectors, like the one that works with the Ecrix drive. Setting a SCSI ID, connecting a cable, and attaching a terminator aren't rocket science. Installation was easy.
Unfortunately, operation was erratic. My primary backup application was Novaback 6. This was chosen for a few reasons. Among these was flexibility of configuration and a sophisticated progress screen that makes it easy to determine, minute by minute, how fast the drive is writing data. The configuration options made it easy to turn compression on and off and to turn archive bit reset on or off (important if you want to do...