Tape Drives

[n2ize]

Anyone using tape drive systems ? can anyone recommend a good tape system ?

[WØTKX]

For what?

My Onkyo TA-R440 cassette deck makes great analog recordings.

It has "tar" in it's name tho. :mrgreen:

[KG4CGC]

Are you talking about those old tape drives that were used in early consumer computers?
Waxing nostalgic again?

[WØTKX]

Streaming tape drives suck, but DAT is kind of OK, if it's used and cheap.

Anybody got an old MD Data disc drive around? The one in my PortaStudio is hosed.

[n6hcm]

Anyone using tape drive systems ? can anyone recommend a good tape system ?

be more specific please. what's your budget, what are you looking to write to tape, how large is the data, what interface do you want to use, ...

in 2010 i'm hard-pressed to recommend tape to the average user: it's way expensive, fragile, and not suited to the average user.

[N2CHX]

DAT is terrible. There's a reason that technology was only used in broadcasting for a few short years.

[W4GPL]

be more specific please. what's your budget, what are you looking to write to tape, how large is the data, what interface do you want to use, ...

in 2010 i'm hard-pressed to recommend tape to the average user: it's way expensive, fragile, and not suited to the average user.I'd have to agree. For any practical application at home or even in a SOHO environment, and perhaps even beyond.. hard drives are just so damn cheap, I've seen 1TB drives for $69. Get a couple/few of those + some USB enclosures and a fire proof safe. Tapes are slow (not to say USB isn't), they don't have the capacity you can get from a hard drive, and.. that's about it.

[KC2UGV]

I'd have to agree. For any practical application at home or even in a SOHO environment, and perhaps even beyond.. hard drives are just so damn cheap, I've seen 1TB drives for $69. Get a couple/few of those + some USB enclosures and a fire proof safe. Tapes are slow (not to say USB isn't), they don't have the capacity you can get from a hard drive, and.. that's about it.

I agree. Unless you have a multi-terabyte+ datacenter, Hard drives are the way to go.

But, John, what kind of tape drive? Are you looking to retrofit an old computer (The kinds that used audio tape), or is it a newer system in place for backup purposes?

[WØTKX]

Hence, the cassette jokes.

[N2CHX]

According to some people, Carbonite is the answer to everything. I don't trust my data to an outside source. I agree on the hard drives. A terabyte external drive is about $100. Mirror a couple of them and download freeware that will automatically backup files for you.

[kf0rt]

According to some people, Carbonite is the answer to everything. I don't trust my data to an outside source. I agree on the hard drives. A terabyte external drive is about $100. Mirror a couple of them and download freeware that will automatically backup files for you.

Carbonite is the Rush Limbaugh solution. Despite being expensive if you have any data at all, it's slow. Come to think of it, that fits Rush as well.

[KC2UGV]

Carbonite is the Rush Limbaugh solution. Despite being expensive if you have any data at all, it's slow. Come to think of it, that fits Rush as well.

Randi Rhodes pimps out Carbonite too... In fact, it's all of talk radio. They pander to fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

[kf0rt]

Randi Rhodes pimps out Carbonite too... In fact, it's all of talk radio. They pander to fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

I just checked. Carbonite is $54.95 a year unlimited, well, except for your ISP limits and such. It's probably not a bad solution for people who don't know their USB from a hole in the ground. Like Rush listeners. :rofl:

[N2NH]

I recommend this. It worked pretty well for me when I used it (1983). It's cheap and uses cassettes which can be found in 99cent stores. It's a bit hard to find and it takes awhile to load. You might have to get an old C-64 to go with it, but then again, it's probably in the garbage or dumpster. I'm certain there's at least one ham that can tell you where to find one.
:-P;)

http://thenewgamer.com/content/files/images/100_1714.jpg

[KC2UGV]

I recommend this. It worked pretty well for me when I used it (1983). It's cheap and uses cassettes which can be found in 99cent stores. It's a bit hard to find and it takes awhile to load. You might have to get an old C-64 to go with it, but then again, it's probably in the garbage or dumpster. I'm certain there's at least one ham that can tell you where to find one.
:-P;)

http://thenewgamer.com/content/files/images/100_1714.jpg

With some coding, you can use any audio tape recorder as a backup device. Transfer would be dog slow, but you would wire your sound ports to the tape-deck ports, and execute something along these lines:

cat /dev/sda1 | gzip > /dev/sound

[n6hcm]

According to some people, Carbonite is the answer to everything. I don't trust my data to an outside source. I agree on the hard drives. A terabyte external drive is about $100. Mirror a couple of them and download freeware that will automatically backup files for you.

i used one of these services years ago ... it was resold by ibm at the time. ibm eventually terminated their agreement with this company and one month i noticed i wasn't billed ... and my backup client stopped connecting. so: i call customer support and they told how their relationship with ibm was terminated ... i said that wasn't a problem and i'd like to continue my service and they said "no can do--your data is gone."

control of your data is everything.

[n6hcm]

I'd have to agree. For any practical application at home or even in a SOHO environment, and perhaps even beyond.. hard drives are just so damn cheap, I've seen 1TB drives for $69. Get a couple/few of those + some USB enclosures and a fire proof safe. Tapes are slow (not to say USB isn't), they don't have the capacity you can get from a hard drive, and.. that's about it.

there are things called virtual tape drives and virtual tape robots ... these actually use disk for their storage. this is what big business uses for their backups--the LTO4 tapes i buy (which hold up to 1.6TB with compression enabled) cost ~$45, and 2TB drives (which hold 2TB without compression and can hold much more if you use Windows compressed file systems and if your data is amenable to compression) can be had for well under $100 if you shop carefully.

you don't need USB enclosures with something like this. (http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=39). thsi can be had for about $25 if you shop carefully.

fire-proof safes aren't necessarily safe for magnetic media, though--it can still get quite hot inside if the exterior is burning...

[W1GUH]

Here's a couple of suggestions:

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/xm02.jpg

Bet you can find one at a hamfest.

Another possibitlity:

http://media.arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.media/dectape.jpg

DECtape is good if you have only limited data to store. Very reliable and simple.

Last-ditch effort: (I think I was beaten on this one -- can't see the image here.)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Commodore-Datassette.jpg/736px-Commodore-Datassette.jpg

And, finally, if you decide Mag Tape is too expensive, there's always:

http://toresbe.at.ifi.uio.no/dec/pdp7/agi/0004_jpg.jpg

That'll be good to read:

http://www.retrotechnology.com/pdp11/11_pts.jpg

You might consider upgrading, though. A few of these will speed things up nicely:

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/rp06.jpg

And that's good for - better sit down - a whopping 178Mbyte!!! Imagine all you could store on one of those babies. And if you've got 3 or 4 - that's Nirvana!

[n0iu]

For years I used a Colorado 250mb external tape drive that used the LPT port. I still have it. Somewhere. I think!