Dear David:
I also used DAT drive to backup nmr data. Now I use Zip, pc and CD. The
followings are some of the emails I received.
Best wishes,
Frank
**********************************************************************
Zhe (Frank) Zhou, Ph.D.
NMR Facility Manager
Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State University
232 Choppin Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-1804, USA
Email: frank.zhou_at_chem.lsu.edu
Office: (225)-388-3460, Lab: (225)-388-3373/(225)-388-3597
Departmental Fax: (225)-388-3458
http://www.chem.lsu.edu/web/facilities/FrankZhou/frank.html
**********************************************************************
____________________Reply Separator____________________
> Subject: Re: Summary of "8GB tape drive"
> Author: "David Grace" <DG_at_nycomed.com>
> Date: 8/21/00 12:59 AM
I am using a DAT drive (for back-up of data rather tah for system restore) so I
wondered why the recommendation as against these - did you receive any details
on this?
best wishes
David Grace
FoUII-3
NMR group, Oslo
voice 23185006
fax 23186014
*************************************************
There is only a not satisfactory solution using bru/cpio to backup the disk
including the system. When I tried to use it, the DAT tape was not recognized
for system recovery. So I had a complete system on a tape which was of no use...
I believe it will be better, and take less time, when you backup only the data.
Should the system disk crash you install a new system and that's it. This
approach becomes even better when the system and the data are on different
physikal hard drives.
**************************************************
Dear Frank,
We have a similar situation to yours involving three SGI's
and two Bruker spectrometers. Our backup solution involves storing
all the NMR data on an NFS-mounted disk array and backing it all up
periodically to a DLT drive. The DLT drive supports up to 40 GB per
tape without compression and is much faster and more reliable than
either 8mm or 4mm (DAT) tape drives. Software support for the DLT
drive is included in the system software of all O2 workstations, but
isn't even needed since the drive can be used even on Indy
workstations with Irix 5.3. I have two of these DLT drives and have
been very satisfied with their performance and reliability relative
to the DAT drives.
Best regards,
***************************************************
I have recently been reviewing tape technologies yet again and in one case with
an eye to future NMR data needs. First you need to determine your cost pain
threshold. There are a number of smaller capacity drive that fit you space
requirements but compromise performance and durability if not reliability.
The two current families of tape drives that have good reliability
reputations but also are not real cheap. They are AIT (1 and 2 and soon 3) and
DLT (3000,4000,7000,8000). There are many other newer and older technologies
but none in the midrange arena that I would want to hang my hat on. In your
case I would look at either a older DLT standard with 15 0r 20 GB native tape
capacity or AIT 1 with 25 GB native capacity. I do need to mention that a newer
side evolutionary line of DLT called DLT1 may provide the best fit. It is newer
but build on solid DLT framework. It is faster than DLT4000 and hold as much as
a DLT8000 but costs less that DLT7000 and maybe even the DLT4000. I was able to
get a quote for a single drive for less than $2K.
I have used DDS(1-3) drives for many years and finally must agree with Dave
that the drives even though affordable and more reliable (than they used to
be) still just do not hold up to frequent use. I see them die after about 2
years.
Received on Mon Aug 21 2000 - 17:12:05 MST