Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 10:42:08 -1000 From: richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) To: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> Cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Strong opinions, anyone? Message-ID: <199806302042.KAA13954@pegasus.com> In-Reply-To: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> "Re: Strong opinions, anyone?" (Jun 30, 12:41pm)
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
} > } > The Exabyte 8200's are cheap, } > } } > } I'd consider them relatively expensive. DDS drives are much cheaper } > } in Europe. The 8200 is also pretty old now. } > } > They are fairly inexpensive some places. } } Yes. Buy several, so you have a set of spare parts. There are a dozen or more places that repair and refurbish them, mostly because they were the `only game in town' for so long in the `high capacity' realm. } > } > reliable } > } } > } Relatively unreliable. This is old technology (full height stuff). } > } The more recent drives are much better. } > } > Mature technology. Built to be used in data centers, not toys like } > many of the other pc backup products. } } I think "notorious" is a more accurate term than "mature". The 8200 is } an unholy mix of consumer video and over-the-top digital design. } They inherit vacuum-cleaner technology from Olivetti, origami } techniques from U-matic, and really should have a fan on the } card cage. Cool. :-) } An 8200 in *ideal* conditions (data centre) will give you long and } reliable service. They are a poor choice for "normal" office } environments. } I've used plenty of these in datacenter environments and a few on home systems over many years. They've been the most reliable tape storage units in their price/capacity range that I've had the pleasure to use. There have been little glitches along the way. When they first came out, a very long time ago, they had a few problems here and there. They're quite solid now. I like being able to buy tapes at the corner drug store if I need to. Unlike the newer, higher capacity Exabytes the 8200's were designed to use consumer video tapes. (The newer ones require `data quality' tapes.) Two Gigs is not a lot of storage these days, but it's enough for many home and small business situations. Putting 2 Gigs on the same realestate that now holds 7 Gigs allows for a lot of redundancy. I've got some eight and 10-year old tapes written on various drives that are still readable today. Even readable on the new high-capacity drives. Amazing. No doubt there will soon be some higher capacity drives that are as reliable and as inexpensive to use (media is part of the cost.) Just not yet. It's nice to be able to put a few megs on a tape and not sweat the cost of the tape. Richard To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199806302042.KAA13954>