Magneto Optical Drives - How to Rescue Your Patient Data Or Transfer It to Another Computer
Do you have tons of archived data stuck on 3.
5" MO disks with no way to retrieve it? Are your archived images stuck on an island with no rescue boat (network connection) in sight? Many Imaging professionals are finding themselves burdened with 1 of 2 common problems; they've got a stack of 3.
5 inch Magneto Optical Disks loaded with valuable archive data, but no way to access it or you've got an ultrasound such as an Acuson or other imaging equipment with studies ready to be archived but no way to get your data exported off your machine and into your computer system.
If you still have the old ultrasound buried somewhere you can try lugging it out of some dusty closet and praying that it will still fire up.
The double-edged sword is that Magneto Optical Disks have 100+ year life cycle but the drives unfortunately have many more moving parts and don't last nearly as long.
So in many cases the media out lives the reader.
In some other cases this is simply not feasible due to the equipment replacement cycle.
So you move to plan B.
Plan B: you know that old dusty PC that had an internal or external MO drive, it's buried way back in your facilities basement.
The chances that the PC even boots up are shaky at best.
Never mind the fact that now you have to factor in storage for a gigantic tower PC, most likely just to read these one type of disks.
But what if you don't even have that computer anymore? Many practitioners have seen their magneto optical drives disappear with the ushering in of new computers or equipment, effectively stranding their data.
Fujitsu was one of the first manufacturers to offer a solution; with their Dynamo line of pocket drives they finally allowed practitioners a cheap, portable way to unchain their archived data.
Gone were the days of digging through old computer equipment manuals and dusty closets.
But where have they gone, can I even buy Fujitsu Dynamo Drives anymore? No unfortunately you cannot, Fujitsu has exited the external drive and optical disk market once again leaving imaging practitioners in limbo.
Enter the Konica Minolta MO-PRO 1300.
The Konica Minolta drive is a USB 2.
0 plug-n-play 1.
3-gigabyte drive, perfect for reading and writing MO disks from 128 megabytes all the way up to 1.
3 gigabytes.
It is a pocket style drive that simply shows up as your next available drive when plugged into a desktop or Laptop.
Slightly larger than an ipod, the drive is compatible with both Windows and Mac and is USB powered, meaning that there is no power brick to hassle with or lug around.
The drive is brand new in the factory box offering an affordable bridge to your stranded data.
This Magneto Optical Drive when combined with your original DICOM viewer or software like Showcase from Trillium Technology or others available online (many times for free) will allow you to transfer, archive or view your studies on the go.
This article barely scratches the surface, if you have any questions about implementing a similar solution I look forward to sharing my knowledge with you.
5" MO disks with no way to retrieve it? Are your archived images stuck on an island with no rescue boat (network connection) in sight? Many Imaging professionals are finding themselves burdened with 1 of 2 common problems; they've got a stack of 3.
5 inch Magneto Optical Disks loaded with valuable archive data, but no way to access it or you've got an ultrasound such as an Acuson or other imaging equipment with studies ready to be archived but no way to get your data exported off your machine and into your computer system.
If you still have the old ultrasound buried somewhere you can try lugging it out of some dusty closet and praying that it will still fire up.
The double-edged sword is that Magneto Optical Disks have 100+ year life cycle but the drives unfortunately have many more moving parts and don't last nearly as long.
So in many cases the media out lives the reader.
In some other cases this is simply not feasible due to the equipment replacement cycle.
So you move to plan B.
Plan B: you know that old dusty PC that had an internal or external MO drive, it's buried way back in your facilities basement.
The chances that the PC even boots up are shaky at best.
Never mind the fact that now you have to factor in storage for a gigantic tower PC, most likely just to read these one type of disks.
But what if you don't even have that computer anymore? Many practitioners have seen their magneto optical drives disappear with the ushering in of new computers or equipment, effectively stranding their data.
Fujitsu was one of the first manufacturers to offer a solution; with their Dynamo line of pocket drives they finally allowed practitioners a cheap, portable way to unchain their archived data.
Gone were the days of digging through old computer equipment manuals and dusty closets.
But where have they gone, can I even buy Fujitsu Dynamo Drives anymore? No unfortunately you cannot, Fujitsu has exited the external drive and optical disk market once again leaving imaging practitioners in limbo.
Enter the Konica Minolta MO-PRO 1300.
The Konica Minolta drive is a USB 2.
0 plug-n-play 1.
3-gigabyte drive, perfect for reading and writing MO disks from 128 megabytes all the way up to 1.
3 gigabytes.
It is a pocket style drive that simply shows up as your next available drive when plugged into a desktop or Laptop.
Slightly larger than an ipod, the drive is compatible with both Windows and Mac and is USB powered, meaning that there is no power brick to hassle with or lug around.
The drive is brand new in the factory box offering an affordable bridge to your stranded data.
This Magneto Optical Drive when combined with your original DICOM viewer or software like Showcase from Trillium Technology or others available online (many times for free) will allow you to transfer, archive or view your studies on the go.
This article barely scratches the surface, if you have any questions about implementing a similar solution I look forward to sharing my knowledge with you.
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