terry@eesun1.eece.ksu.edu (Terry Hull) (06/08/90)
We are going to be getting an Exabyte tape drive to backup a network of UNIX systems. I was wondering if anyone out there had a recommendtation of what tapes to use or what tapes to aviod. I know I've always used 3M DC600s and have had really good luck. Thanks for your time. Terry Hull Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University Work: terry@eece.ksu.edu, rutgers!ksuvax1!eecea!terry Play: terry@tah386.manhattan.ks.us, rutgers!ksuvax1!eecea!tah386!terry
mcconnel@b11.ingr.com (Guy McConnell) (06/09/90)
In article <1990Jun7.200046.25259@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu>, terry@eesun1.eece.ksu.edu (Terry Hull) writes: > We are going to be getting an Exabyte tape drive to backup a network > of UNIX systems. I was wondering if anyone out there had a > recommendtation of what tapes to use or what tapes to aviod. I know > I've always used 3M DC600s and have had really good luck. Thanks for > your time. This is a pet peeve of mine so bear with me. The tendency is for people to buy the cheapest tape they can find to back up their critical disk data. I have worked with tape drives for the last 7 years and that is far and away the biggest problem I have seen across drive technologies and manufacturers. If you want to record a CD to listen to on your car stereo (or home stereo) what type of audio tape will you buy to capture the great audio reproduction on a CD? The most expensive and/or "best" tape you can find such as a CrO2 tape. Is your data any less important? That said, I recommend using Exabyte's "Exatape" cartridge because it is certified for data storage and must pass a more rigid acceptance test than standard video 8mm tape. It bears Sony's new "D8" trademark which means it is certified for data storage. If Sony sells a tape under their own brand that has the "D8" trademark, it would work just as well, but I am not aware of them doing that at this time. You can use regular video 8 tapes, but you run a much greater risk of losing data. If you drop a pixel or two on a video, you probably won't even notice but you WILL notice if you lose the equivalent data in your Exabyte. For what it's worth... ============================================================================ Guy McConnell | Opinions expressed | "I'd like to be Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, AL. | are mine and do not | under the sea Mass Storage Peripheral Evaluation | necessarily reflect | In an octopus' Tape Products | Intergraph's. | garden in the uunet!ingr!b11!mspe5!guy | | shade..." (205)730-6289 | | ============================================================================
Steve.Bridges@Dayton.NCR.COM (Steve Bridges) (06/09/90)
We have 2 of those little guys here hooked up to our Tower 32/650 and 32/800. We have used 2 different kinds of tape-- Sony and Scotch. They are the high quality (sp) metal particle tapes. Never so much as had a single problem with them. One recomendation from our plant which OEMs the Exebyte (we put our own SCSI controller in it) is to clean the tape heads every 24 hours of operation. -- Steve Bridges | NCR - USG Product Marketing and Support OLS Steve.Bridges@Dayton.NCR.COM | Phone:(513)-445-4182 622-4182 (Voice Plus) ..!ncrlnk!usglnk!uspm650!steve | AOPA #916233 ..!uunet!ncrlnk!usglnk!uspm650!steve| PP-ASEL, AMEL