From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Aug 12 21:20:32 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from granite.sentex.net (granite.sentex.ca [199.212.134.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2E68A14CB4 for ; Thu, 12 Aug 1999 21:20:28 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@sentex.net) Received: from gravel (ospf-wat.sentex.net [209.167.248.81]) by granite.sentex.net (8.8.8/8.6.9) with SMTP id AAA07866; Fri, 13 Aug 1999 00:17:54 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <4.1.19990813002520.042feee0@granite.sentex.ca> X-Sender: mdtancsa@granite.sentex.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1 Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 00:30:19 -0400 To: Eric Lee Green , evablunted@earthling.net ("Langa Kentane") From: Mike Tancsa Subject: Re: Best tape drive to buy Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <9908122056520B.05193@ehome.local.net> References: <37b36f41.739411187@mail.sentex.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG >The only problem is that DDS3's require a SCSI controller, and they are still >expensive, at around $900 or so the last time I looked. Can't justify that for >my home machine :-(. I'm looking at the NS-20 tape drives, which are based on >Travan technology. They are cheap, around $300-$350, the tapes hold 10 gigs >uncompressed, but -- the tapes also cost $30-$35 apiece. > >The OnStreams will one day be good for home backup, but for the moment they >don't have a driver :-(. I have given up on Travan tapes. I have found them to be error prone compared to DAT tapes, and generally of 'cheap' quality (the drives that is). Plus you end up paying for it in the end with having to get replacement tapes often (which as you point out are expensive), or the tape drives just die at an early age. Our old Sony DAT drive lasted almost 3yrs of heavy use before we decided to give it up before it gave up on us. I have had 3 out of 8 or 9 travan drives die or show siginficant problems within a year. YMMV of course.... ---Mike ********************************************************************** Mike Tancsa, Network Admin * mike@sentex.net Sentex Communications Corp, * http://www.sentex.net/mike Cambridge, Ontario * 01.519.651.3400 Canada * To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message