Re: tlug: DAT tape drive

[Marcus Metzler <mocm@example.com>]

jq@example.com writes:
 > 

 > >DAT would be better for me. What is cheaper the drive or the tapes. My
 > brother
 > >tells me that the 2GB tapes for DAT are about 7DM=500yen, which would be
 > >much cheaper than 30$.
 > I can't recall having seen DAT tapes that small, and never anywhere near
 > that cheap.  The smallest DAT cartridges I've seen are 4 GB, with 8 GB and
 > 12 GB also being quite common.  If somebody were selling me a DAT tape for
 > 500 yen, I would have to assume it to be well used, and even then I'd be
 > suspicious that maybe something was wrong with it.  Normally, both DAT
 > drives and tapes are more expensive, especially drives.  DAT, basically, is
 > what you buy if cost is not an object but capacity and speed are.  That's
 > why the recommendation that unless you need DAT (and are willing to spend
 > for it, I should add), there are good alternatives that will cost less.
 > 
The 4GB Tapes cost about 45DM=3200yen. You have to be careful. The capacity
ist often advertised as up to 4GB compressed. I think that is false 
advertisement. You shouldn`t really speculate with the compression factor,
not everything you put on the tape is a text file. My brother got his drive
for ca. 1500DM=105000yen, but that was a couple of years ago. So I think
there may be some cheaper ones now. I was thinking about the HP drives
(http://www.hp.com/tape/datasheets/dat2000.html) or the ones from Sony (haven`t
found the web page yet.)

Marcus

-- 
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Dr. Marcus Metzler
Department of Physics
Toho University
Miyama 2-2-1, Funabashi, Chiba 274
Japan

e-mail : mocm@example.com
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