Re: tapes best for backup?
On Jan 4, 2008, at 7:38 AM, Larry Irwin wrote:
I've heard about issues with DLT's but never experienced any
problems with them.
I thought DLT was OK when I was using it. It was certainly better
than the DDS/DAT drives it replaced -- those had to be cleaned every
other day, whereas the DLT drives only signaled for cleaning a couple
times a year. I had occasional load/unload reliability problems but I
think they were due to bad drive design on the unit I had, not any
inherent problem with the tape. (It was an Overland tape library, but
the real culprit seemed to be the Benchmark DLT1 drive inside.)
The main thing about DLT tapes is don't drop them. Treat them with
the kind of care you would hard disks. If you drop them the spindle
will get knocked out of position and they will likely jam the next
time they're loaded.
I would not buy a used tape drive. They're finicky mechanical devices
and you really want a warranty. Every time I've bought a used tape
drive thinking I was getting a good deal it's died within a month.
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