Quantum DLT-V4 BHBAM-EY 160 GB 320 GB

Advantages: Fast, reliable, Good Price
Disadvantages: No SCSI cable included, Not Great instructions

...I bought this for our office server which before-hand was running a DDS5 tape drive. I have to say the DDS5 backup system we had was excellent and never caused me any problems. We got to a point where we needed two tapes to do a backup, and considering we keep backups for up to a month, thats a hell of a lot more tapes we would have to buy. After a lot of research and learning about DLT and SDLT, we discovered the V160. DLT allows backups to 40GB (80GB Compressed) and SDLT is alot more (i forget the figures). DLT would not have been enough and SDLT is a hell of a lot more expensive. Quantums V160 is right in the middle of the two and each tape can store up to 160GB data if compressed. We managed to get the drive for around £700 and then bought a number of tapes. It was delivered direct from Quantum within a week. The one problem I... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, reliable, and the prices are coming down
Disadvantages: Tape load time is still slow... typical DLT, though

...Enterprise backups are important... as we all know. I've long trusted DLT technology and the DLT-8000 doesn't disappoint. As long as you know how to get the most from a tape drive, and a SCSI subsystem in general, you won't have any problems, but you will have greatly shortened backups. I've obtained nearly 350MB/minute with this drive. On an 100GB server, that puts the backup window at less than 5 hours! There are two keys to getting the most out of these drives. First, ensure that your tape drive firmware is updated. There were at least 2 or 3 different versions that have been improved upon since these drives first came out. The update is really as simple as making the tape with a free utility, pushing a couple of buttons on the drive and inserting the update tape. Second, make sure your SCSI controller is able to handle the speed... Read review

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Advantages: Stylish, Very Quiet, Ease of Use
Disadvantages: None

...This stylish hard drive from Western Digital is one of the simplest electronic things I have bought in years. Just plug it into your USB port, and it does every thing for you, no installing drives off CD's, which on some things I have experienced, can be very time consuming. It is also surprisingly quiet and very stylish and with 320 Gb of space theres enough room for thousands of your pictures and music files. This also comes with a Fire Wire cable so transfer of your files is almost instantaneous. The cost is a little higher compared to some of its competitiors, I got mine for £99 from Amazon, but is well worthy of the price tag. I can promise, you wont be disappointed.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful