Product of the Day: DupliDisk3 from Arco

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Product: DupliDisk3Manufacturer: ARCO Data Protection Systems,Address: 3100 North 29th Court, Second Floor               Hollywood, Florida 33020Telephone: 954-925-2688URL: www.duplidisk.com

Backup Even The Biggest IDE Drives With Blazing Speed

Arco's New DupliDisk3 Mirroring Device With Native Linux Utility Eliminates Data Loss and Downtime

HOLLYWOOD, Florida--Arco Data Protection Systems, a leading provider of low cost IDE disk mirroring (RAID 1) hardware, has now announced the DupliDisk3. With the DupliDisk3, PC and Macintosh users have an affordable easy-to-use way to maintain up-to-the-minute backups of their data and software.

The DupliDisk3 supports the Windows, LINUX, Macintosh and DOS operating systems and works by creating an exact bootable replica of your hard drive. Installation is a simple process. Once installed, the DupliDisk3 works automatically in the background, making it an ideal backup and crash recovery solution whether you're running a home computer, a mission critical server or a register in a point of sale (P.O.S.) system.

Arco's latest Linux Utility, called "dl3" (duplinux version 3.0) is designed to provide native Linux support for users of DupliDisk 3 hardware RAID 1 products. This program provides the user with the tools necessary to configure the DupliDisk hardware with startup options, and run an initial mirror operation, thus guaranteeing that the drives are precisely mirrored from the start. Although Arco's DOS based application continues to be popular, the native Linux application has the advantage that all functions can be performed in the background, with little degradation in system performance and no down time necessary.

After initial mirroring, the Linux application can be shut down and only has to be run again in case of drive replacement. It can also be run periodically to check drive status. Both the dl3 application, and the DupliDisk3 hardware are compatible with the new 48 bit LBA ATA addressing and can handle IDE drives up to 144 peta bytes of memory. The application was built with a simple menu driven, terminal based interface, and can be run from a console window in x-windows, or directly from a TTY terminal. It also contains a command line interface which permits batch operation. This can be useful for a periodic monitoring operation that can be run from the crontab, for example.

Earlier versions of the duplinux program required a kernel patch and consequent kernel rebuilds, since the basic commands for DupliDisk control are not built into the standard kernels. The latest version, however, automatically loads its own run time module that provides for the low level support, and is compatible with any 2.4 version kernel, without alteration.

DupliDisk3's ability to support the newest, fastest and biggest UDMA-5 (UltraDMA 100) drives makes it an attractive solution for applications, such as video or sound production, where the need to backup large blocks of data quickly is essential. Its unique new buffering technology insures fast smooth mirroring even when using drives of unequal size and speed.

With the DupliDisk3, Arco has eliminated the high-cost and complicated installation that has kept many PC and Mac users from adding the security of hardware mirroring to their computers. The DupliDisk3 requires no device drivers or inits and uses no IRQ or system memory so it causes none of the software or hardware conflicts which can plague today's computer systems.

A unique and particularly exciting feature of the DupliDisk3 is an optional built-in time clock. The clock allows users to schedule status checks of remote computers, such as unattended servers or kiosks, to insure that both drives are operating normally. Status and/or drive failure reports can be automatically forwarded to a designated email address at regular intervals.

How It Works

The DupliDisk operates by mirroringBwriting data both to your original drive and to a backup drive simultaneously. All mirroring occurs transparently in the background. Each time you save a file or make a change to your hard drive, the same action occurs simultaneously on the mirror drive so that you have an exact duplicate of your drive at all times. Since all actions are sent to both drives at the same time (rather than having the second drive copy from the first), there is no delay time and writes are instantaneous. If one of the drives should fail, the DupliDisk3 sounds an alarm and automatically switches all operations to the remaining drive. Your system remains up and running.

The DupliDisk3 is capable of mirroring up to two pairs of IDE , E-IDE, or UDMA drives, including the new fast UltraDMA 100 drives. Arco offers the DupliDisk3 technology in a variety of form factors, including both internal and external hardware. Installation software support is provided for Windows 3.x, 95, 98, ME, 2000 and XP; LINUX 2.4, and Macintosh OS X. However, since the DupliDisk3 requires no operating-system specific drivers, it is capable of operating in any software environment and a DOS-based application is available for all other installations.

About ARCO Data Protection Systems

Arco is an IDE technology company. It offers PCI and ISA bus versions of the DupliDisk3 as well as both 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch drive bay mounted (Bay Mount) units, the unique FlexMount model (which requires neither a slot nor a drive bay), and the RAIDcase which includes two hot-swappable drive bays and is available in both internal and external form factors.

email: potd@ssc.com

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