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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.bhp.com.au!mel.dit.csiro.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!paladin.american.edu!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!news.new-york.net!ritz.mordor.com!ritz From: ritz@ritz.mordor.com (Chris Mauritz) Subject: Re: Tape drive for backup. X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0] Lines: 41 Organization: Mordor International Message-ID: <DpDsJo.1B6@ritz.mordor.com> References: <Doy3z5.K2o.0.raindrop.seaslug.org@raindrop.seaslug.org> <315AFF62.167EB0E7@freebsd.org> <4jg9rq$j45@csnews.cs.colorado.edu> <Dp1HJs.5p1.0.raindrop.seaslug.org@raindrop.seaslug.org> <4jhirk$ovg@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> <4k1hie$krb@uriah.heep.sax.de> Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 08:50:12 GMT J Wunsch (j@uriah.heep.sax.de) wrote: : jfieber@indiana.edu (John Fieber) writes: : : > I have used an Archive Viper SCSI drive for about 4 years. It can hold : > about 250MB per tape and writes between 5 and 6 megabytes a minute. It : > cost me about $350. Tapes range about $18-$22 each. Now that I've got : > over 1gig of disks space (and possibly 2.2 more soon), I find backups a : > little tedious because they cannot be done unattended and they take quite : > a while. : : I've also been using one, same experience. : : > 4 and 8 mm drives are quite a bit more expensive, but the speed is much : > better as is the cost per megabyte for tapes. : : ..and about the same as for modern multi-Gig QIC drives, like the : Tandberg TDC4222 i'm using now. It can hold up to 2.5 GB per : cartridge, plus hardware compression. The speed is up to 500 KB/s : for 2.5G cartridges with compression, and about 180 KB/s for 1GB : cartridges without compression. That's about the same as a DDS-1 : DAT drive does. I use 4mm DAT (Wandat 3100) and get about 11mb/minute and 2gigs on a 90m tape which costs about US$7 these days. : As for Thomas' question about why floppy tapes suck: they are cheap : since they've been moving out functionality from the tape hardware/ : firmware into the host CPU. The protocol is so weird that it curled : my fingernails when i first heard about it, and the handling is so : terrible that it has been pissing off three developers who once : started with the best intentions for a good floppy tape driver, : leaving the driver now orphaned in FreeBSD. :-( Which seems to mirror the opinion of programmers from all walks of life who have attempted to add support for these paperweights to their favorite operating system. It's worth the extra initial investment to have a more reliable backup media. Regards, Chris -- Christopher Mauritz | For info on internet access: ritz@mordor.com | finger/mail info@ritz.mordor.com OR Mordor International | http://www.mordor.com/ 201/212/718 internet access | Modem: (201)433-7343,(212)843-3451