tape drive info wanted.

[Robert Bernecky]

I'm looking into high capacity backup drives for a system which is
initially going to have a 1.2gig scsi disk on it. I discarded the
idea of QIC tapes as being too slow, even though I have this sneaky 
feeling that if I get tapes in the mail from people, they'll be qic format.

That leads 4 and 8mm DAT tapes, I believe. My limited talks with vendors
have gotten me the following bits of (what may be) information:

- Exabyte is the sole manufacturer of 8mm tape drives. They have
  higher bandwidth and capacity than 4mm tapes. They may do a better
  job of read/write error handling.

- Many (14 or so?) companies make 4mm DAT drives. Someone at Exabyte
  said that there appeared to be some compatability problems among
  tapes written by different firms' drives. 

- Exabyte claims to have better in-field reliaility. The 4mm pundits
  claim fewer moving parts, ergo better theoretical reliability. However,
  since they have only been out for a year or so(?), in-field reliabilty
  cannot claim to compete with Exabyte.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone with experience in this area,
and recommendations, etc. I was almost ready to go with Exabyte, but
am wondering if the 4mm stuff is going to take over, leaving me with
what is essentially a very expensive paper tape drive (in terms
of being able to read other's media).

Thanks for your time. 
By the way, I received two responses on a previous posting about
R Squared and inexpensive Fujitsu drives, which were basically
favorable - their prices are the lowest I've encountered, and I'll
probably order my Fujitsu drive from them. Ditto the tape, if I can
decode on format...


Robert Bernecky      rbe at yrloc.ipsa.reuter.com  bernecky at itrchq.itrc.on.ca 
Snake Island Research Inc  (416) 368-6944   FAX: (416) 360-4694 
18 Fifth Street, Ward's Island
Toronto, Ontario M5J 2B9 
Canada