Topic: Tape Drives - my experiences with the seagate travan 20

[dilligaf]

Hi,
Although the seagate travan 20 works well for the smaller office on SME, I am finding reliability to be a concern.
I find that the drives last just under two years. Out of all the servers I have built I find that between 18 and 23 months the tape drives are no longer reliable.(require replacing)
I am curious what others are finding?
Surely a decent tape drive should last far longer than this?
I understand the need to replace the tapes, but the drives?
Dan

[Thomas]

I have used travan drives on Windows servers and 2 years is about all they last.  DAT tape drives are much more reliable, but they cost 2-3 times as much. BUT the DAT tapes are only $10 each instead of $40 for travan tapes.

My .02 worth!

[jmvelez]

Sony AIT drives are available with IDE but the media is expensive.  They are fast and hold 30/90 and the new AIT Turbo is 40/104.  Tapeware works great.

[dilligaf]

I have used travan drives on Windows servers and 2 years is about all they last.  DAT tape drives are much more reliable, but they cost 2-3 times as much. BUT the DAT tapes are only $10 each instead of $40 for travan tapes.

My .02 worth!

Hi Thomas,
It would be great to get some feedback on how much longer a DAT drive is expected to last.
IE, if IDE Travan drive is good for 2 yrs, what is DAT? Easier to justify if it is worth the expense.
Again bearing in mind the application is small office, not an enterprise.
Dan

[dilligaf]

This is interesting,
A quick comparison on Certance site shows the DAT drive as follows:
CD 24 Desktop MTBF 150000 hours @ 20%
and the CT 20 Internal travan as MTBF 330000 hours @ 20%