Date: Fri, 03 Nov 1995 12:07:38 -0500 From: "Michel Joly de Lotbiniere" <mjdl@interlog.com> To: Darryl Okahata <darrylo@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> Cc: hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Known working DAT drives Message-ID: <199511031707.MAA01266@lotbiniere.interlog.com> In-Reply-To: Message from Darryl Okahata <darrylo@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> of "Thu, 02 Nov 1995 11:41:04 PST." <199511021941.AA297181265@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com>
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Darryl, I'm in the process of selecting some kind of reasonably priced SCSI-2 backup drive for my 1GB disk (o.k., that's a bit of a joke); it seems I have the choice of three different media for 1-2GB tape capacity: 1/4 inch tape (QIC 1000,2000) e.g. Tandberg Sony minitape (QIC3080) e.g. Conner, Tandberg Low end DAT (1-2GB) e.g. HP, Conner Since these are expensive devices, reliability and lack of problems over the long haul (e.g. alignment) are a major concern. I've seen earlier, lower capacity drives from Tandberg: really solid construction, and the 1/4 inch tape mechanism seems relatively simple, so probably reliable. I've not examined any of the other two types. DAT seems very attractive, with low priced media, small media storage requirements, high backup speeds, but I'm not sure of long term reliability, since this technology is far more complex mechanically than any of the others (it is, after all, an audio recording format). Also, given the fact that DAT tapes have about 1/3 of their capacity taken up by ECC (versus less than half that by other formats), what are people's experiences of the "backup that failed to restore correctly" and similar disasters with DAT? You're welcome to send me e-mail directly; I'll summarize if the response warrants it -- remove the cc: hardware@freebsd.org in that case. Regards, ========================= Michel Joly de Lotbiniere mjdl@interlog.com =========================
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