Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 07:06:34 -0800 (PST) From: Donald Burr <dburr@POBoxes.com> To: Jamie Clark <jamie@erinet.com> Cc: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: Q: Opinions on which Tape Drive to Buy? Message-ID: <XFMail.980206071311.dburr@POBoxes.com> In-Reply-To: <34DB24AB.A9706B89@erinet.com>
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- My secret spy satellite informs me that on 06-Feb-98, Jamie Clark wrote: >Hi, > >I'm in the market for a tape backup system for both FreeBSD and Windoze >95. I'm looking for at least 4 GB uncompressed capacity at a street >price for the unit (not necessarily including interface card) around >$375. What models have you had good experiences in installing, >operating, and with its technical support among those in the market. >I've never bought a tape drive for a PC. Though, I'm experienced with >the major PC peripherals regarding installation and configuring. > >The system is an Intel Pentium 200 MHz with 32 MB. Windoze space is a >little over 5 GB and FreeBSD space is about 1.8 GB. I do have plans of >increasing disk space with another disk to allow keeping uptodate with >FreeBSD-Stable. The only drives *WELL* supported by FreeBSD are SCSI tape drives. (FreeBSD, I believe, now supports IDE/ATAPI tape drives, but I do not know how good/stable/etc. that support is). This is a problem, because most tape drives for PC's are "floppy tape" variety (they connect up to the floppy disk controller, or to a special controller board that is essentially similar to the floppy disk controller but uses different resources). AVOID THESE LIKE THE PLAGUE!!! Not only is the performance bad (very error prone, IMHO) but the support under FreeBSD is virtually nonexistent. (There is support, but it is not full support - you need to use a special program to access the tape device, you can't just use a /dev file like you can with normal tapes) and this support has been molding away for a long time (ie it hasn't been updated). Yeah, SCSI tapes are definitely the way to go. Unfortunately, they are a bit hard to find. Most computer places don't have them, so you will have to mail-order or go hunting. And they cost somewhat more than their floppy-tape counterparts. But believe me, all this extra money and effort is worth it. SCSI tapes are extremely stable, fast, and versatile under FreeBSD. Avoid the HP/Colorado and Seagate SCSI tape, however, I have heard bad things about these (coming from, I believe, the FreeBSD lists). Other than that, most any tape drive will do. Many like Exabyte drives; the Archive family is popular as well. - --- Donald Burr <dburr@POBoxes.com> - Ask me for my PGP key | PGP: Your WWW HomePage: http://DonaldBurr.base.org/ ICQ #1347455 | right to Address: P.O. Box 91212, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1212 | 'Net privacy. Phone: (805) 957-9666 FAX: (800) 492-5954 | USE IT. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBNNsoh/jpixuAwagxAQEMngP+MQBjpIpF971RwlmFsK1vpyvRdYOGNJH2 Q6JiFpt4P6w9nFVn+zFPnfOKLWOzo2W4I4QRxH8WmRkqqXsPlBuQDevTGKsV+33Y dIPoPjUNP5xk49ihjZdFMF6Ace7LZvAv6LW4cN/y1GRdjR43zEZQJiDOA7RrbdAt rMjbigcvfYo= =PZnw -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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