Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2002 11:33:11 -0500 (EST)
From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu>
To: bjm1287@ritvax.rit.edu (Brian McCann)
Cc: lists@redlamb.net ('Peter Erickson'), freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Tape Backup
Message-ID: <200212161633.gBGGXB315140@clunix.cl.msu.edu>
In-Reply-To: <000e01c2a51e$ff481070$1500a8c0@dogbert> from "Brian McCann" at Dec 16, 2002 11:20:06 AM
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> > I've never ran one on FreeBSD, but I've used several DDS-3 drives of all > kinds of flavors. I've had some problems with some Seagate ones, but > aside from that, I've had no problems. The only thing I'd keep in mind, > and that I've experienced is that the DDS-3 tapes are not designed for > heavy use. From what I've done, using 5 tapes a week, one a day, I end > up throwing the tapes out (after destroying them) after about 4-6 > months...which is fairly average from what I've heard. Also, a cleaning > tape, though I never believed it till I saw & used it, increased the > life of the tapes slightly, and I assume it also extends the life of the > drive...but I've never seen one croak, so I don't know. Your experience sounds about like ours. I think we get just a little more average life out of a cassette than you indicate, but not a large amount. Actually, we've used some DDS-4 too with pretty much similar results. One thing though, the cleaning tape may increase the life of tapes, but frequent use can reduce the life of a drive. The cleaning tapes can cause increased head wear. We recommend only using them when really needed - write errors show up - and not on a regularly scheduled basis. But, this is true of DDS-2 and even original DAT. Keeping your drive and storage environment clean and as free of dust as possible is a more important thing to improve tape and drive longevity, I think. If your usage justifies the cost, you might want to consider DLT or LTO type drives. They handle the load with less failure and higher capacity and data rates. ////jerry > > Hope I helped, > --Brian > > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG] On Behalf Of Peter Erickson > Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 7:57 PM > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: Tape Backup > > I am running Freebsd 4.6 and my dds-2 tape backup drive just died on me. > I am interested in moving up to a bigger capacity drive so does anyone > have any recommendations? I am not interested in anything high end, this > is just for my system at home. I was looking at the dds-3 drives, but > before i went out and bought one, I would like opinions and or > recommendations. Thanks in advance. > > -- > Peter Erickson To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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