From owner-freebsd-hardware  Sun Mar 11 10:46: 2 2001
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Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 10:47:57 -0800
From: Sean Kelly <kelly@ad1440.net>
Message-Id: <200103111847.KAA25866@ad1440.net>
To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject: Tape experience and advice
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Folks:

I had my last DDS drive put down.  It served me fairly
well for a couple years, and I'll miss it.  But now it's
time to stop running on "autopilot" and get a new
backup system.

I'd like to stay away from helical scan systems since we
just don't seem to get along, having had two DDS drives
and two VCRs die on me in well under their expected
lifetimes.

SCSI is fine, and I don't care about speed.  I'm looking
to back up at a minimum 8GB per night.  I'd like to keep
costs low, both drive and media.

What's everyone else's advice?

OnStream's technology looks pretty good in the form of
their ADR-50 drive.  But 50GB is more than I'll ever
need (at least, I think so).

eCrix's VXA demonstrations are impressive, what with
frozen and coffee soaked tapes, but that's helical scan
again, isn't it?

Thanks for any input.
--Sean

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