[SunRescue] Re: Spectra Logic Bullfrog

[Joshua D. Boyd]

On Tue, 1 May 2001, James Lockwood wrote:

> On 1 May 2001, Gregory Leblanc wrote:
> 
> > Do you folks just discover these on ebay, or what?  I managed to borrow
> > a 2GB DDS2 drive from work, and while it holds 2GB, but it takes ane
> > entire night to fill the tape using GNU tar, with the drive hooked to a
> > 3940UW.  I've got about that much stuff just in my user directory, so
> > I'm browsing around for something faster, bigger, better...

DDS-2 is a 4gig native drive.  In verifying this I found that my nice new
"DDS-2" drive is really a DDS-DC drive (got it a week ago haven't
installed it yet, plus I don't yet have any DDS-2 media to test it with).
Sigh. I guess it is good enough for my current backup needs, but I'd
planned to also use it for offline storage of data that won't compress
well (mostly imaging and video stuff), and 2G isn't quite as usefull for
that.
 
> Best deal at the low end these days in my opinion is 8mm.  Exabyte 8500's
> (5GB uncompressed) can be had for as little as $5 on Ebay (picked one up
> 20 minutes ago for that with case).  The nicer 8505XL can do 7GB/14GB on
> 160m 8mm tapes, and usually goes for under $150.

Been thinking of getting an Exabyte 8mm drive for compatibility with other
people for awhile.  Maybe I should get one now since my DDS drive is so
small.  It's either that or buy yet another DDS drive.  A CD-RW drive mght
also be a good idea soon.

--
Joshua Boyd