Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!boulder!ccncsu!longs.LANCE.ColoState.EDU!kk881595
From: kk881595@longs.LANCE.ColoState.EDU (kevin knappmiller)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: DAT versus 8mm Tape
Message-ID: <10924@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Date: 5 Nov 90 20:10:54 GMT
References: <272DB1E1.9737@orion.oac.uci.edu>
Sender: news@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU
Reply-To: greg@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu
Organization: Engineering College, Colorado State University
Lines: 42

In article <272DB1E1.9737@orion.oac.uci.edu>, sfrank@orion.oac.uci.edu
(Steven Frank) 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.

We have a Wang 1300 DAT, attached to a DECstation 5000 with a 600MByte
Hard disk.
When used for disk backups it works great.  It is also good for the
initial loading
of software.  

The DDS format which this drive uses appears to have many capabilities
which are
not used by the typical UNIX software (ie. `tar').  We would really like to be
able to use this tape drive as an extremely large floppy disk, for storage and
file transfer.  After reading the article in this month BYTE magazine,
it appears
that a formatting and sectoring of the tape (given access times of 60
seconds) is
possible.  This would be much preferable to using `tar'.  

Does anyone know of software which supports the entire set of DDS commands, and
allows a more user friendly interface to the DAT tape?

> 
> 2.  Can anyone suggest articles of intermediate technical level that
>     describe how DAT and 8mm tape systems work and what the pratical
>     details are of using these systems (eg, seek times, etc)

November BYTE magazine.

> 
> 3.  What is the cost for medium for DAT drives?

~$16 per 1.3 GByte tape (60m, 4mm)
> 
> kevin knappmiller
kk881595@longs.lance.colostate.edu
Fort Collins, Colorado