My experience with MO disks was
great -- well worth the effort!
Purchased my first MO drive in 1996 (
640 MB 3.5", compatible with 230 MB cartridges among others). After a couple of years, this unit became somewhat unreliable (but still usable!) so I purchased another one, Fujitsu branded -- working great last night.
MO
media is
absolutely reliable -- my first disks from 1996 have worn labels with almost unreadable lettering... but the contents read just fine, like day 1! The only problems I ever had were from the ocassional SCSI-termination issue, drive failure and an unfortunate system crash xx( that's why I keep the disks
locked unless I need to write to them!
I mostly have backups on them, but also "large" (by the stantards of the day) files, like QT movies and big scans -- plus experimental / emergency systems. Most of my content is in
DiskCopy images with checksum, so I can always verify data integrity
I like using the drive: compact, quiet and snappy performance -- seek times are slower than a HD, but still
a lot faster than CDs. Another great thing is the plug-and-play feature: in the SE/30 or other computers without any driver installed, I just put a formatted disk in the drive, wait a few seconds for it to spin up, and then turn on the Mac -- driver from the disk is loaded at once. In fact, I'd like to get an OS X-compatible USB (or FireWire!) drive, it would make a convenient
bridge between my modern and vintage computers.
Anyway, for your backup needs, I'd recommend a
couple of HDs -- I'd never trust a
single copy! (unless it's on MO, of course)
BTW, I'm currently in an altruist task as Sound Engineer
wannabe, and I'm recording on... MiniDisc.