OT: SLR 5 Tape drive vs DAT

[Bill Vermillion]

On Wed, Feb 09 14:22  Jay R. Ashworth said 'Who you talkin' to? You talkin'
to Jay R. Ashworth?  I didn't do nuttin'.  I said: 

> On Wed, Feb 02, 2005 at 10:59:39AM -0500, Fairlight wrote:
>
> > Simon--er, no...it was J. Ryan Kelley--said:
> >
> > > The Main advantage i can think of is that tape drives are
> > > reuseable, so if you need to backup your data on the same
> > > medium several times, Tape is still the better option.
> > > I would agree that DVD is a better option for long term
> > > permanent storage though

> > DVD-RW/+RW anyone?

> Actually, there *are* some good reasons.

> Tapes are much more rugged, from a handling standpoint, and the moreso
> the larger the tapewidth.

> I have a client who is having the annual TR-4 failure. We
> contemplated switching them to DVD-RW, but the box in question
> is one door away from a machine shop, and handwashing isn't
> their strong suit. The tapes have a much higher likelihood of
> not getting trashed.

Before I took over the *n*x side for a site they had been going
through the Travan routine.   

I put in a VXA-1 by Ecrix [now part of Quantum] and it just runs
and runs and runs.  It's running on an IDE interface in Linux with
scsi-emulation.  The VXA-1 is actaully a SCSI device with an IDE
interface.  SCSI price is the same.  List price is $699.  So far
they are ahead of the game considering how often the TR-4 devices
were being replaced.

8mm tape form factor.  33GB native - and 66GB with hardware
compression [ not the inflated compression specs you see
in systems that use SW compression ]

It averages about 100MB/min backup.  And that's the cheapest and
slowest of their line.   It gave Quantum a lower priced entry
point.

> Secondly, LTO is up to 500GB in a DLT shell.  How many DVDs is that?

I'd guess about 125 :-)

And to one of the other posters who guessed that DVD is better
for long term storage - since we've only had DVD writeables for
about 5 years and I've pulled data off of 15 year old tapes all
guesses on DVD longevity are just that - guesses.

And one drop of a DVD can put a minisucle dent in the surface from
which you can not recover the data.  

TDK is comeing out with their new scratch-proof coating for DVDs -
but I haven't seen that on the market.

The data storage surface is too exposed to damage.   That's  one
reason the DVD-RAM disks originally came in cartridgges just like
the original CD players from people like NEC.

Data storage requires more thoughtful storage consideration than
the movies you buy or rent.

And some DVDs are barely worth watching the first time let alone
15 years from now.

DVD's are entertainment technology adapted to data storage - the
same way DAT started - but DAT disappeared and for data the DDS
came into play - and while they look similar they aren't.

DAT devices were designed to be played from end to end - just like
an LP or CD.  DDS were designed for the stop/rewind/start mode
in data environments so the cartridges have a much better design
even though they look the same to the naked eye. [Can I say naked
here or will the FCC come after me?]

Bill

-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com