> $1300-1400 or so for DDS4, with linux support, from hp.
>
> $20-30 for DDS4 tapes.
>
> 40/60 gb space.
AFAIK, DDS-4 is 20/40GB.
I've worked with a couple of DDS-4 drives; they're faster than DDS-3, but
*much* pickier about their tapes. one customer has had a whole pile of tapes
that wouldn't work in his drive (even when they were the recommended brand).
Some tapes worked, some didn't.
this was on the *second* drive from that manufacturer. (we tried replacing
it).
I don't trust DDS very much anymore. It may be coincidence; but I've
seen/heard of more reliability out of 8mm tape drives (Exabyte, AIT, VXA)
than the 4mm tape drives (DDS-{2,3,4}).
can't say DDS is an outright *bad* format... it's too widely used with too
few problems to be inherently bad. (it's certainly better than Travan; and
better than DLT in some ways). But I have seen more DDS drives go bad than
other drives (tho I recognize that I'm not in any way making statistically
unquestionable judgements).
Carl Soderstrom
--
Network Engineer
Real-Time Enterprises
(952) 943-8700