[rescue] Re: 8mm tape media

[rescue at sunhelp.org]

On Fri, 20 Jul 2001, Robert Novak wrote:

> If your drive is not an 8505XL or 85058 or 870x , you're maxed at 112m 8mm
> tapes, up to 5gb native/10gb compressed. The XL and Eliant drives support
> 160m, which will give you 7gb native/14gb compressed.

There's also the little-known 8205XL (I used to have one).  3.3GB native
on 160m tapes.  Personally I preferred the 8500 even though the 8205XL had
h/w compression.

> I haven't been able to find much of a difference between an 8505XL, an
> 8700, and an Eliant 820 drive other than marketing name and pricing
> (sometimes). They seem to have the same speed and capacity. Is there
> actually a difference? And does anyone have a spare Eliant sitting around?

The mechanism of the 820 does look a bit different, but it could be
largely cosmetic.

-James