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From: nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer)
Subject: Re: whats a good external SCSI tape?
Message-ID: <nCMJr72@quack.kfu.com>
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Organization: The Duck Pond public unix, +1 408 249 9630, log in as guest.
References: <DzHp5B.6Bt.G.nanguo@nanguo.chalmers.com.au> <54dhae$3gs@uriah.heep.sax.de> <Dzn5KB.wB@yedi.iaf.nl>
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 17:49:54 UTC
Lines: 29
Well, I happen to be a big fan of DATs. I have witnessed a decidedly
non-trivial failure rate with 8mm (admittedly, this was with the
previous generation of 8mm drives -- the full height ones with the
flip-out door), but have never lost a bit off any DAT drive.
I have seen the HP DATs work just fine under FreeBSD. HP has a habit of
claiming there are "magic" switches that they don't document ("if you're
using a Sun, set it like this", etc), which is a habit I despise
(because invariably minority OSes like 4.4BSD are left off the list and
because it presumes a lack of intelligence on the part of the user), but
the drive seems to work with the default settings.
DATs also have faster cycle times (the time between tape insertion
and unit ready, the time between the start of a read and the return
of data, the time an 'mt fsf' takes, etc), than 8mm (at least by my
observation).
I have a QIC-150 drive as well, but I am probably going to replace
it with a ZIP drive when an internal SCSI one is available. QIC
tapes are awfully expensive, and I see ZIP disk prices only going
down.
Of course, opinions are like assholes: Everyone has one and they usually
stink.
--
Nick Sayer <nsayer@quack.kfu.com> | If you're old enough to legally vote,
N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NORCAL.CA.USA.NOAM | drive, contract, copulate, smoke,
+1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' | fight for and die for your country,
URL: http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/ | I say you're old enough to drink.