dd to /dev/tape Advantages ?

[Thedore Knab <tjk@annapolislinux.org>]

For backups,  

I understand the disadvantages and simplicity of using tar.

I also like using dump now that I understand it.

I was wondering if anyone was using dd to make tape backups.

What are the advantages/ disadvantages.

i.e.

Using dd to write to Tape (raw dump)
-----------------------------------------
mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
dd if=/proc/kcore of=/dev/nst0 bs=20480 count=10
mt -f /dev/nst0 status
mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
dd if=/dev/nst0 of=/tmp/rwtest.dat bs=20480
ls -l /tmp/rwtest.dat

Ted Knab