From owner-freebsd-isp Thu Jan 22 07:59:01 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id HAA25182 for freebsd-isp-outgoing; Thu, 22 Jan 1998 07:59:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from thumper.bellcore.com (thumper.bellcore.com [128.96.41.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id HAA25140 for ; Thu, 22 Jan 1998 07:58:55 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from ath@bellcore.com) Received: from grapenuts.bellcore.com (grapenuts.bellcore.com [192.4.4.35]) by thumper.bellcore.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id KAA09972; Thu, 22 Jan 1998 10:24:49 -0500 (EST) Received: from bellcore.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by grapenuts.bellcore.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id KAA06385; Thu, 22 Jan 1998 10:25:18 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199801221525.KAA06385@grapenuts.bellcore.com> In-reply-to: lamaster@george.arc.nasa.gov's message of Wed, 21 Jan 1998 14:41:51 -0800 (PST) Cc: freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG From: Andrew Heybey To: lamaster@george.arc.nasa.gov Subject: Re: SCSI backup tape drive recommendations (again) References: <199801212241.OAA01034@george.arc.nasa.gov> Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 10:25:10 -0500 Sender: owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org I bought an unused (though obsolete) DDS-1 (2GB per 90M tape, no compression, 400KB/s) archive ne conner ne seagate drive from www.onsale.com a while ago for about $230 (including shipping). Out of the box, it didn't work: it would wedge the NCR driver, the AHC driver would report write errors, and Windoze NT would report read errors when verifying backups. Thankfully, Seagate support emailed me a firmware update and after that it works like a champ. I am very happy with it. If I want compression I pipe my dump or tar through gzip. So I would second the recommendation to buy a DDS drive of some kind. It doesn't take buying too many $25 tapes to make that $150 QIC tape drive look awfully expensive. 90M DDS tapes are $7 at the local Computer City and $5 mail-order. andrew