Tape Drive

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.

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

mike7411@gmail.com wrote:
> 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.
>

On 7 Sep 2006 10:44:26 -0700, mike7411@gmail.com wrote:

>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.

On Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:56:35 -0400, kony <spam@spam.com>
wrote:

>... 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.

kony <spam@spam.com> wrote
> mike7411@gmail.com wrote

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

>> Is this worth anything?

Nope, WAY past its useby date.

>> Does it take 350 MB tapes,

Thats compressed.

>> and how much might the tapes cost?

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 fucked tape technology.

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

<mike7411@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1157651066.576676.44120@p79g2000cwp.googlegro ups.com...
> 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



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Fri, 8 Sep 2006 08:17:22 +1000, "Rod Speed"
<rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote:


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

>
>> 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 fucked 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

kony <spam@spam.com> wrote
> Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote

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

>> Only the fools.

> Nope,

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.

>>> 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 fucked tape technology.

> You're out of your mind.

You have never ever had a clue.

>> 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

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

mike7411@gmail.com wrote:
> 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.