cbs@cs.cmu.edu (Clauss Strauch) (06/17/91)
I've seen the hype and some of the technical data comparing 8mm to
4mm tape drives, but would like to hear people's practical experiences with
the two media. Specifically:
-- Experiences with reliablity, both for the drives and
the media (how well do the tapes hold up to repeated
use/abuse?).
-- The 90m (2 GB w/o compression) DAT drives are available,
but are the drives and media as reliable as the lower-
capacity ones? It seems like just a short while ago
the 90m tapes were bleeding edge.
-- Anything else that gets left out of the advertising
blurbs and technical specifications, but might cause a
sysadmin to prefer one technology over the other.
-- Clauss Strauch
Engineering Design Research Center
Carnegie Mellon University
cbs@edrc.cmu.edurden@rden.gen.nz (Robert den Hartog) (06/29/91)
In article <1991Jun17.024733.3999@cs.cmu.edu> cbs@cs.cmu.edu (Clauss Strauch) writes: > > I've seen the hype and some of the technical data comparing 8mm to >4mm tape drives, but would like to hear people's practical experiences with >the two media. Specifically: > -- Experiences with reliablity, both for the drives and > the media (how well do the tapes hold up to repeated > use/abuse?). [...] > -- Anything else that gets left out of the advertising > blurbs and technical specifications, but might cause a > sysadmin to prefer one technology over the other. > We have 1 exabyte unit away for head replacement after just under 2 years service. Usage is about 3 hours/day for 5 days/week. (1 daily backup with verify.) We asked our supplier if 2 years was reasonable, apparently they got the word back from Exabyte that 2-3 years is all that's expected from the heads. (I can't fully guarantee the authenticity of that quote.) Apprently longer life heads are being investigated. But new heads every 2 1/2 years is not cheap, nor very settling. (Apparently when the unit comes back it may have trouble reading/writing tapes recently created before the unit went away.) If you're unit needs cleaning often, start saving (or check your maintenance agreement.) The repair is a 1 month, 1 week or 2 day turnaround depending on how much you eant to pay. Any info on DAT head life? As to tapes, the usual: avoid sunlight and heat. One supplier even told us to only buy tapes in winter (in case they sit in the delivery truck for too long on a hot summer day.) -- The spelling mistakes aren't mine, they're the computers. Hey, have a nice one. Robert den Hartog. {rden|robert}@{rden|mercury}.gen.nz Sorry, just me again, I seem to have lost my EOF somewhere. Aha, there it is