A TR4 cartridge costs around $50 so a drive + 16GB tape (which is more than
I'll need for the next 12months) = $700. And DAT solutions will probably start
at at least 50% over that amount (though the media is a lot cheaper per GB).
I checked the Exabyte Eagle webpage and they are Travan drives (like the ones
above) and there no SCSI versions (only floppy and IDE).
> >
> > I'm finally looking into buying a tape drive for my system to do proper
> > backups and I'd like some input from users out there.
> > I'm looking into 4GB TR4 (Colorado T4000s and Seagate CTT8000R - IDE or
> > SCSI)
> > and 1.6GB TR3 (Colorado T3000, Iomega Ditto 3200 or Seagate CTT3200R).
> > I'd prefer the TR4 since it the media is so much cheaper than the TR3
> > (per GB), but I found it a bit expensive.
> > I would like to hear from people using these units (or others I have
> > overlooked) how happy they are with them (Linux use is what I'm
> > interested in). Also, I noticed that there a quite a few commeercial
> > backup software options now available. Is anyone using them ? Is taper
> > good enough for single machine backups ?
>
> I have not used any of the above units but I've used 8mm Exabyte
> 8505xle tape drives with Linux. They hold 5 to 7 gigs or 10 to
> 14 Gigs per tape depending on compression. They sell for around
> $3000. You could also look for an old Exabyte 8200 drive.
> You can probably find some DAT drives a lot cheaper (and smaller
> and slower). The 5Gig tapes cartridges are cheap, about $10 - $15,
> the 7Gig tapes are $20-$25.
>
> I just got a pair of 8mm Exabyte 8900 "Mammoth" drives. They hold 20
> Gigs uncompressed or 40Gigs compressed with 3MB/s to 6 MB/s
> read/write speeds. They are about $6000 a piece depending on whether
> you get narrow, wide or differential. They're pretty fast and hold
> a lot on one tape.
>
> Quantum DLT 7000 drives are pretty neat too. They are 35GB per tape,
> 70GB with compression. Transfer rate is 5MB/s uncompressed. They're about
> $13,000 per drive.
>
> The 8900 and DLT cartridges are over $100/tape so it's a bit pricy.
>
> If those are too high end you should look at some DAT drives. Exabyte
> also make a low end tape drive called the "Eagle". I think the
> flopppy tape style drives are crap and seem to break down, and the
> IDE tape drives probably not much better but they are cheaper. All tape
> drives eventually require servicing though.
>
> Whatever you get, SCSI will be a lot easier to use and less dependent
> on driver code. Buslogic/Mylex still have the best hardware and
> drivers for Linux, although the Adaptec cards may be about as
> robust and well tested by now. BTW the Buslogic 946/956 drivers have
> been around longer, while the Flashpoint ones are newer. (Look at
> Readme.Buslogic in the kernel sources for more info).
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Christian.
> > --
> > csd@netbox.com
> >
> >
> >
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> BogoMIPS Research Labs -- bogosity research & simulation -- VE7JPM --
> jmorriso@bogomips.com ve7jpm@ve7jpm.ampr.org jmorriso@ve7ubc.ampr.org
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------