[comp.sys.mac.hardware] Cheap tapes--summary and another question

dave@PRC.Unisys.COM (David Lee Matuszek) (04/24/91)

A few days ago I asked:

> I'm (very) likely to buy a TEAC 150MB tape backup unit in the next
> week or two, but I'm concerned about the price of the media.  At
> $29/tape it doesn't sound like I can afford to do a complete backup
> very often.  Any suggestions for a good place to get tapes more
> cheaply?  (E-mail, please, I'll summarize if I get enough info.)

Basically, what I've heard is:

1.  150MB Maxell CS-600XD tapes are cheaper than TEAC, and seem to work fine.

2.  Third Wave sells TEAC tapes for $24.  Mac Zone sells Maxell for $24.

3.  Many people buy tapes locally, rather than mail-order.  Quantity
    (10 or more) prices run $15 to $19 a tape, mostly nearer $19.

I also got a recommendation for Retrospect (complex but powerful).

So I guess the conclusion is that there's no great mail-order place to
buy them, and the best thing to do is just shop around locally.

Now my next question--

If I network together two Macs (using whatever facilities System 7.0
will give me--but I'm not a beta tester and have to wait to find out
what those are), can I use the TEAC tape drive to back up the hard
disks on both machines?  Or just the one it's physically connected to?

I haven't networked the Macs before this, because that would have
meant using one as a dedicated server, which defeats the purpose.  So
I don't yet know much about networking.  (I know about TOPS, but it's
cheaper to wait for System 7.0).

Probably this isn't of sufficient interest to warrant much bandwidth,
so please just e-mail.  Thanks in advance for any responses.

-- Dave Matuszek (dave@prc.unisys.com)  I don't speak for my employer. --
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|   When I was young, my family bought a color TV.  Our neigbors, who   |
| were poorer, had only a black-and-white set.  They bought a piece of  |
| cellophane, red on top, yellow in the middle, and blue on the bottom, |
| and taped it over their screen, so they could claim that they had a   |
| color TV, too.                                                        |
|   Now there's Windows 3.0.                                            |
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