RE: Backup devices

[Paul Bunn <paul ultrabac com>]

I concur with this.  The Ecrix is a very nice low-cost drive, with excellent
specs (66GB per cart, and 6MB/sec sustained xfer with 2:1 compression).
They also have _unique_ technology that makes the drive very reliable and
robust -- packet reassembly, overscan and variable speed tape transport.  As
a demonstration of the reliability of the technology they made a backup on
tape, then took the tape, placed it in hot coffee then froze the tape solid
in a block of ice, then let it thaw and dry ..... then restored from the
tape.  Apparently, this torture-test was repeated by a cynical magazine
reviewer.

Early model OnStream drives do not support common tape-drive (sequential
access device) commands and therefore offer developers *many* problems when
writing a device driver.

Regards,

Paul Bunn, UltraBac.Com, 425-644-6000
Microsoft MVP - WindowsNT
http://www.ultrabac.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Maurice Hilarius [mailto:maurice@harddata.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2000 7:48 AM
To: axp-list@redhat.com
Subject: Re: Backup devices


If you are looking for a nice tape drive (big capacity, reasonable cost) 
look at the VXA1 form Ecrix:
http://www.ecrix.com/

Good Linux compatibility, fast, and clean.
Also, from personal experience we sold 2 Onstream drives, both of which 
broke in the first month of use and had to be replaced.
I have also installed 2 VXA1s which are running fine.

So, you can now tell what I prefer  <grin>