*BSD News Article 93914


Return to BSD News archive

Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!metro!metro!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!ix.netcom.com!kientzle
From: kientzle@netcom.com
Subject: Finding Reliable DAT Drives
Message-ID: <kientzleE8v0Ly.5zp@netcom.com>
Organization: Netcom
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 00:41:58 GMT
Lines: 38
Sender: kientzle@netcom8.netcom.com
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:39338


About six months ago, I picked up an old surplus WangDAT 1300 DAT
drive, installed it and set up weekly backups.  I'm pretty pleased
with the overall setup, but....

* I've recently noticed that 2 out of 3 backups are failing to
  verify.

This is a bit scary, especially since I had a (fortunately minor)
hard disk hiccup last week, and I had to go back pretty far to
find a backup tape that could restore the lost files.

I know that Joerg is pretty pessimistic about DAT in general, but I'm
already invested in DAT, and haven't seen any other really viable
alternatives for me:
  * I prefer SCSI (floppy-interface stuff is just too scary;
    I don't expect FreeBSD to support ATAPI or parallel tape
    drives anytime soon; I'm a bit squeamish about custom
    interfaces)
  * I need something in the 2gig range (I don't have time
    to baby-sit weekly backups; it has to fit on one tape).
  * DLT drives are way out of my budget.
  * I've seen a couple of SCSI QIC drives that come close;
    are they really any better?  (They're no cheaper once you
    factor in the $30 tapes)
  * Speed is a complete non-issue; I'm perfectly happy to run
    backups overnight.

Can anyone comment on DAT reliability?  Is 2 out of 3 failed backups
something I'm likely to see with a new drive?  Does anyone know a good
source of new or high-quality used/surplus DAT drives?  (I've noticed
several Mac vendors selling new bare DDS-2 drives for around $800,
which is more than I'd like to pay, but not outrageously so.)

I'll consider non-DAT drives if someone has something they
can really recommend.

                                - Tim Kientzle