Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 16:20:07 -0800 (PST) From: Doug Russell <drussell@internode.net> To: "David Alderman" <dave@persprog.com> Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Are HP DAT drives more unreliable than others? Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19970102172242.383f7202@internode.net>
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At 05:08 PM 1/2/97 +0500, David Alderman wrote: >> >who makes high capacity QIC drives anymore? >> >archive made several models. they were bought by >> >conner and that seemed to end their production of >> >high capacity QIC drives. >I appreciate the information, but I didn't say this (at least I don't >think so...). No, I know you didn't, but you were the one to whom he was responding. :-) >I think some of the people discussing QIC were referring >to the "full size" models. TR4 is a Travan "miniQIC" format which >traditionally are not as robust as the "full size" models, although I >believe this has changed for some models. Unfortunately, when the >miniQIC is mentioned, most people think of the old Colorado Jumbo >series which were not known for their reliability. I have several on >a shelf with burnt out stepper drivers. I hope that some of these >newer, SCSI based drives are more robust. This is all true as well. I never liked the Colorado drives, and have never heard much good about them. I personally, however. have several Archive/Conner models, from an old Archive Hornet 120/250 Meg from years ago, to a newer Conner 120/250 Meg model, to a much newer QIC-3080 2/4Gig MiniQIC, and I've never had a problem with any of them. The new drive is SCSI, and so far has excellent all the way around. (And quite fast.) The TR4's, or at least the Seagate/Conner model is supposedly quite good as well (from what I have heard, reliability seems good so far, although long term is still a ?, of course, and they are quick as well.) As I don't have one, I can't say anything personally, but I do know a couple people who have. While it may be true that the full QICs are pretty much gone, some of the newer mini cartridge drives seem good, and the capacity is decent, so at least compared to DAT, for people who use a limited number of tapes, they may make a lot of sense. DSS tapes are still cheaper (especially DSS-1s), so I suppose if you use many tapes it is less expensive to go DAT, but many of us only need a few tapes to maintain adequate backups. Just my observations/opinions, of course. Later...... <Doug>
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