rrw@naucse.cse.nau.edu (Robert Wier) (05/08/91)
A few months ago I ran across an ad for the Valitek,
Inc PC tape drive (located in Hadley, MA). This is a drive
which appears to use a TEAC mechanism and can be connected
to either a serial or parallel port on a PC to do backups or
tape transfers.
Our need here is to be able to occasionally get back-ups from
our PCs, but not on even a weekly basis... so we are not too
concerned with the speed of operation. What we would like to
avoid is having to buy N number of controller cards for the
tape system (since we can't afford to install a tape drive in
every machine).
This looks like a nice solution. Has anyone had any experience
with this unit (or can suggest something similar?)
Please E-Mail or post here
THANKS
- Bob Wier
-------------- insert favorite standard disclaimers here ----------
College of Engineering
Northern Arizona University / Flagstaff, Arizona
Internet: rrw@naucse.cse.nau.edu | BITNET: WIER@NAUVAX | WB5KXH
or uucp: ...arizona!naucse!rrwrkl@cbnewsh.att.com (kevin.laux) (05/08/91)
In article <3709@naucse.cse.nau.edu>, rrw@naucse.cse.nau.edu (Robert Wier) writes: > > A few months ago I ran across an ad for the Valitek, > Inc PC tape drive (located in Hadley, MA). This is a drive > which appears to use a TEAC mechanism and can be connected > to either a serial or parallel port on a PC to do backups or > tape transfers. > > Our need here is to be able to occasionally get back-ups from > our PCs, but not on even a weekly basis... so we are not too > concerned with the speed of operation. What we would like to > avoid is having to buy N number of controller cards for the > tape system (since we can't afford to install a tape drive in > every machine). > > This looks like a nice solution. Has anyone had any experience > with this unit (or can suggest something similar?) I have two valitek drives (since I need to copy one 600MB drive to another, one for backup on the first machine, the other for restore on the second) and have not had any problems. The valitek drive capacity that I have is 60MB and the tapes cost about $25 a piece. Getting a tape drive that runs off the serial/parallel port is definitely a good solution in your situation. The valitek is lightweight and portable. I also can say I'm impressed with their software - it is very well designed and user friendly. You can place many datasets on a tape. Each dataset is prefaced by a directory. You can restore on a file by file basis. You can backup on a file by file basis. You can backup from drive D and restore to drive C. You can overwrite files, be prompted or just not restore over existing files. If you have 100MB in a disk partition and have the 60MB version it will prompt you to change tapes. All in all, very satisfying. Just a satisfied Valitek user... -- ________________________________________________________________________________ R. Kevin Laux Email: rkl1@hound.att.com AT&T Bell Labs Voice: (908) 949-1160 Holmdel, NJ 07733 Fax: (908) 949-0959