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Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!pagesat!spssig.spss.com!news.oc.com!utacfd.uta.edu!rwsys!sneaky!gordon From: gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: [386BSD] What tape drive should I use? Keywords: SCSI tape Message-ID: <By04Fo.A21@sneaky.lonestar.org> Date: 20 Nov 92 06:23:42 GMT Organization: Gordon Burditt Lines: 20 I'm putting together a 486 machine to use with 386BSD. One missing component (after all the orders arrive) is a tape drive. I need tape backup, but I'm also concerned that if software distribution by tape cartridge becomes popular, that my drive can read such cartridges. (With floppies, I can say something like "1.44 meg 3.5" floppy", and be reasonably sure of compatability, at least at the hardware and low-level format level, and if I say "tar floppy" also, I can probably interchange data. What's the equivalent type of magic words for tape? I ask vendors of tape drives and it takes several minutes to even explain the question!). I want something fairly inexpensive ($2,500 is WAY too much), and probably SCSI, as I'll already be using an Adaptec 1542B. It also needs to be reliable. 386BSD seems to have a SCSI tape driver, but I'm not sure what it can handle. A fairly decent tape capacity, like 100M - 250M, would be nice, but if a lower capacity/density is popular for interchange, I want to be able to read that, too. Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon