[plug] [OT] Tape back-up

[Craig Ringer]

On Wed, 2004-03-03 at 21:16, Chris Caston wrote:

> So the first thing I'm going to ask is who actually *SELLS* these? 

HP and Sony do, among others. Local dealers - I don't know.

> Anyway the tape is a ~40gb DDS4 part no: HP - C57 18a ( think but if
> there is a discrepancy it would be ether miscommunication over GSM or my
> own handwriting)

DDS-4 is AFAIK compatable across drive mfgrs, so my Sony should be able
to read the tape fine.

> So what are the deal with tape drives are there many different standards
> or are they mostly the same?

DDS-4 tapes can be read by DDS-4 drives only. DDS, DDS-2, and DDS-3
tapes can be read by a DDS-4 drive, too. Basically, older DAT tape
formats can be read by newer drives, but not the other way around. You
can't read an LTO or DLT tape in a DDS drive, they're different tape
technologies.

> Does anyone by chance have a drive I could borrow to save buying one?
> Although I wouldn't mind buying one so I can learn how to use them. At
> the moment I use either ext HD caddies via USB for backup but I have
> seen sites that use ext HD via SCSI. 

I have a DDS-4 drive I can allow you access to. It's not going anywhere,
though, so you'd need to bring the tape to me (Subiaco, late morning to
early evening most days, contact for details).

It's connected to a Debian box, so if it's an NTBACKUP tape you're out
of luck - but if it's a cpio or tar archive etc, I should be able to do
something with it.

Craig Ringer