Tape Drive

[mike7411]

Someone is offering to give me an external Colorado 350 Tape Drive for
free.

Is this worth anything? Does it take 350 MB tapes, and how much might
the tapes cost?

Thank you.

 

[Bennett Price]

Before considering it, determine whether the software will run on your OS

 

[kony]

Someone is offering to give me an external Colorado 350 Tape Drive for
free.

Is this worth anything? Does it take 350 MB tapes, and how much might
the tapes cost?

Thank you.

Do you need to backup < 350MB to tape?

If not, it's pretty worthless. There was a time when some
would prefer it to CDR, but today you'd be better off
putting smaller amounts of data on a flash card/drive/etc,
which is even more reliable than tape.

 

[kony]

... better off
putting smaller amounts of data on a flash card/drive/etc,
which is even more reliable than tape.

And a heck of a lot faster, more convenient, easier to
store, impervious to (reasonable) heat, or moisture.

The tape drive makes the most sense to someone who's been
using one and has the tapes with data on 'em already, and
who could use a spare tape drive in case their present one
fails.

 

[Rod Speed]

(e-mail address removed) wrote

Nope, WAY past its useby date.

Thats compressed.

Stupid prices compared with CDRs.

Do you need to backup < 350MB to tape?

If not, it's pretty worthless.

Its completely worthless even if it is < 350MB.

There was a time when some would prefer it to CDR,

Only the fools.

but today you'd be better off putting smaller amounts of data
on a flash card/drive/etc, which is even more reliable than tape.

And even CDRW is vastly better than that ****ed tape technology.

Makes a lot more sense to use DVD+RW now.

 

[philo]

Someone is offering to give me an external Colorado 350 Tape Drive for
free.

Is this worth anything? Does it take 350 MB tapes, and how much might
the tapes cost?

Thank you.

I would not bother...
just burn your data ot Cd or DVD

 

[kony]

Only the fools.

Nope, for awhile CDR shelf rot was a real issue. The
supposed claims of 50 years storage just did not pan out, if
the data was valuable then best practice with CDR was a
minimum of 2 copies of same thing on different
manufacturers' discs.

The situation has improved over time, thus "was a time"
rather than "today".

And even CDRW is vastly better than that ****ed tape technology.

You're out of your mind.

Makes a lot more sense to use DVD+RW now.

RW formats are not appropriate for valuable data. Even more
prone to loss than +-R

 

[Rod Speed]

Yep.

for awhile CDR shelf rot was a real issue.

It was never as bad as problems with those stupid low end tapes.

The supposed claims of 50 years storage just did not pan out,

In spades with those stupid low end tapes.

if the data was valuable then best practice with CDR was a minimum
of 2 copies of same thing on different manufacturers' discs.

Yep, so those that used those those
stupid low end tapes instead were fools.

The situation has improved over time,
thus "was a time" rather than "today".

It was stupid even very early on with CDRs.

You're out of your mind.

You have never ever had a clue.

RW formats are not appropriate for valuable
data. Even more prone to loss than +-R

Pity that when you do multiple copys to multiple
manufacturer's disks, that difference is irrelevant.

 

[paulmd]

Someone is offering to give me an external Colorado 350 Tape Drive for
free.

Is this worth anything?

Only if you have tapes you need to recover, and no working drive.
Otherwise, no, don't bother.