[1816] in linux-scsi channel archive
Re: SCSI DAT drive suggestions
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Pete Popov)
Mon May 5 22:01:54 1997
Date: Mon, 05 May 1997 18:55:25 -0700
From: Pete Popov <pete_popov@asd.sel.sony.com>
To: maillard@vt.edu
CC: linux-scsi@vger.rutgers.edu
Julien Maillard wrote:
>
> We are thinking about replacing a cheap floppy tape drive by a DAT SCSI drive
> to increase speed, reliability, and capacity... we would like a drive capable
> of at least 2GB backups... The system uses the Buslogic BT-958 adapter. Any
> suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> --
> Julien Maillard maillard@vt.edu
> Virginia Tech
> tel: (540) 231 5846, fax: (540) 231 8836
I really hesitate in giving you my opinion, since I'm quite biased
when it comes to tape drives ... but here it comes anyway:
Sony's SDT-7000 is the most reliable and the fastest DDS2 drive on
the market, and Sony's SDT-9000 is the _only_ realiable DDS3 drive
currently on the market. If you don't mind paying about $350 more
for the DDS3 drive, you'll get a drive with Sony's new Hyper Metal
Head technology, which represents a leap in DAT recording technology.
The native capacity is 12GB, but you can expect about 2/1 compression
ratio from the drive's DCLZ compression chip. If you want to utilize
the drive's transfer rate (1.2MB/s native), you'll need a high end
system, as well as a high end SCSI controller. If you don't need
that much capacity and performance, the SDT-7000 would be a better
choice, however, consider how much capacity you'll need 1 to 2 years
from now -- it may turn out that you can use 12GB native.
I've been backing up my Linux system with an SDT-7000 for about 2 years
now and have never encountered any drive problems. Similarly, I've
tested SDT-9000 and AIT drives on my Linux system and did not run into
any problems. I have two Symbios 53815 controllers on the system, one
of which is dedicated to the tape drive. I've briefly tested a similar
system with an Adaptec 1542 and 2940UW cards. Some of our other
firmware
engineers are also using Linux and are backing up their systems with
our drives.
I hope that helps.
--
Pete Popov
Sony Electronics
Advanced Storage Development
pete_popov@asd.sel.sony.com
