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Date:      Wed, 9 Dec 2009 17:09:05 -0800 
From:      Doug Sampson <dougs@dawnsign.com>
To:        'Olivier Nicole' <Olivier.Nicole@cs.ait.ac.th>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   RE: HP USB 2.0 Tape Drive
Message-ID:  <D05FCB8B5D9E904981802903D84EEFEF3D67@hydra.dawnsign.com>

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> Hi Doug,
> 
> > Does anyone have had positive or negative experience using 
> these USB-based
> > DAT tape drives? Specifically, I am looking at the HP 
> (Hewlett-Packard)
> 
> I know that I am not really answering your question but here are a
> couple of thoughts that came to my mind when reading your post:
> 
> - USB 2 should be able to sustain the transfer speed to stream your
>   DAT drive, I checked that point;
> 
> - I always considered DAT one of the worse tape solution myself, too
>   sensitive to the physical conditions, too prone to errors, could
>   never read a tape after 6 months;
> 

Interesting points you raise. I have owned several DAT drives (Quantum,
Sony, and HP) over the past 17 years and have yet to lose ability to restore
data due to bad tapes. I am careful where I store these between use. I use
these with SCSI interfaces on Windows systems with one exception- I use a
SCSI-based Sony DDS DAT 12/24 tape drive in a FBSD system running PGSQL.

All I just want to know is whether FBSD will recognize and work with the
tape drive I posed in my previous email (the Hewlett-Packard StorageWorks
Q1581SB DAT 160 Tape Drive). Will it be identified as /dev/da* something?

Can any one of you confirm if you got any USB 2.0 tape drive to work with
FBSD? I like the fact that I can just plug a USB tape drive into a new
system in seconds without having to fuss about installing a SCSI/SAS card
and have a tape back up made relatively soon.

As a side note: I had trouble getting certain branded USB external hard
drives recognized by FreeBSD. I ended up using LaCie hard drives as these
were listed as being compatible. Thus I am cautious about anything that uses
USB in general with FreeBSD.

I just got off the phone with a Quantum technical staffer and he was stymied
by my question whether their USB 2.0 DAT 160 tape drive would be recognized
by FBSD. He pushed me off to a sales representative who is just got off for
the day.

~Doug



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