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From: jparnas@larouch.uucp (Jacob Parnas)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: DAT versus 8mm Tape
Message-ID: <1990Nov4.175950.574@larouch.uucp>
Date: 4 Nov 90 17:59:50 GMT
References: <272DB1E1.9737@orion.oac.uci.edu> <9850004@hpcpbla.HP.COM>
Sender: news@larouch.uucp (Usenet News Program)
Reply-To: jparnas@larouch.uucp (Jacob Parnas)
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In article <9850004@hpcpbla.HP.COM>, stevej@hpcpbla.HP.COM (Steve Jerman) writes:
|> >I Need To Buy A Backup System In The 1-2 Gb Range For Unix.  I Am
|> >Comparing Dat And Exabyte 8mm Tape.
|> >
|> >1.  Any Opinions On The Merits And Problems With Each System
|> >    Would Be Welcome.

At least for our uses, I think that the exabyte is definately a more useful
drive.  You get about double the capacity with the exabyte than the DAT,
and that means half as much tape shuffling.  

The one advantage that the DAT drives have is faster access.  We use the
exabytes for backing up about 150 machines and we need about 2-3 restores
per month, so the access time is much less important than the tape capacity.
We back up 20-40 Gigabytes twice a month (one for off-site backup) and
do incrementals.

I think the 8mm tapes are also cheaper.  They definately are cheaper per
gigabyte.

We've been really happy with our exabytes.  We have 7 now and have 4 more
on the way.  They are cheap, fast, reliable and hold a mess o' data.

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