*BSD News Article 94739


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From: geert@gonzo.sun3.iaf.nl (Geert Bosch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Finding Reliable DAT Drives
Date: 29 Apr 1997 10:23:22 GMT
Organization: La Calandre Infortunee
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Frank McConnell (fmc@rahul.net) wrote:

   Tapes have been throwaways for as long as I can remember.  They stretch,
   they wear, they fail in all manner of interesting ways.  Some you can
   prevent or defer with proper cleaning of drives (and, in an earlier era,
   tapes).  Some you can't.  Some can only be deferred so long.  

I use an Archive Viper 150 tape drive with DC6150 tapes. I use these tapes
almost daily to transfer data to and from the university. I find that these
tapes are much more reliable than floppies even when I use them daily.
I have never had a single read or write error with one of my tapes.
Now that these drives and tapes are so cheap (often you can get them 
for free) they are a good replacement for floppies IMHO. You can store
more than 100 floppies on them as well. O, and they are much faster than
floppies. So much for outdated technology...

Regards,
   Geert

BTW. I must confess I never clean the tape heads and I am quite sure
those at the university are not cleaned either.