From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Dec 22 21:08:35 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id VAA25839 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Tue, 22 Dec 1998 21:08:35 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dsinw.com (dsinw.com [207.149.40.5]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA25834 for ; Tue, 22 Dec 1998 21:08:33 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from hamellr@dsinw.com) Received: (from hamellr@localhost) by dsinw.com (8.8.8/8.7.3) id VAA04162; Tue, 22 Dec 1998 21:06:26 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 21:06:25 -0800 (PST) From: rick hamell cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SCSI Tape Drive Recommendations? In-Reply-To: <19981223143817.Y85005@freebie.lemis.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > The silence is deafening, isn't it? The question is ``reliable''. I > find most tape units unreliable. At the moment I'm still using DDS > drives, but I haven't had any that have survived more than two years, > and refurbishing seems to be a waste of money. General consensus is > that Travan drives are even worse than DDS or Exabyte, but that may be > prejudice. From what I've seen, half the problems with tape drives has been dust on the optics. An HP tech support person has suggested to me a weekly cleaning with an approved HP cleaning tape, something most people don't seem to do. :) Of course, there is still the fact that tape drives still seem unreliable. For the price of some of the high-end Exobyte tapes, I'd probally build a second machine to backup too. Even if you're low on money, a 2nd hard drive will still be a good investment. Rick To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message