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: Quite a fast drive.
Disadvantages: One of the "Deathstar" drives.

...Whether you are thinking of buying this drive (2nd hand, most likely as it's a couple of years old) or own one of IBM's 60GXP, 75GXP or 120GXP models, read on for important information about issues with these drives and fixing them. ** THE DRIVE ** Capacity: 40 GB (38.3 GB as reported in windows) Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM Interface: ATA-100 Average seek time: 8.5 ms It's a fast enough drive. It seems to perform quite a bit better than the 5400 rpm 45 GB Western Digital drive I had, it's quite a bit quieter and this one's not dead ... yet. ** BORROWING NAMES FROM STAR WARS ** The main reason I thought I'd write a review on this drive, is to hopefully help a few others who have this or one of the other 60GXP, 75GXP or 120GXP models (as I've read these are equally affected). It didn't take long for a lot of people to start... Read review

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Advantages: Stable
Disadvantages: Heavy

...I have been setup 30 piece of IBM R50 thinkpad for a new company. Basically what happen is I encounter IBM have thier own software install when the brand new R50 delivery to the customer. The most rediculors things is the IBM software use up 3 GB space which not inluded the Operating system. Which mean this R50 come with 40GB harddrive, user only will have 30GB to use, the rest is software usage. Come to the point of hardware issue. This product come with centrino 1.5 and built-in WIFI. Everything is solid look and reliable. Boot up is not as fast as what you think after all the personal software installation which use for startup program. Make you feel like not a 1.5 centrino product. I do not advice home user getting this laptop is because you will get bored of the look. If you insist to get a IBM. I would advice you to get a T41p... Read review

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Advantages: easy to use, very robust, major storage capabilities
Disadvantages: tape headers tend to break off, pricey to buy new

...... Read review

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Advantages: Fast; High performance
Disadvantages: Known reliability issues

...IBM's Deskstar range of hard disks is well known in the IT industry as one of the best, but not always the cheapest - you pay a premium price for a premium product. I bought the 75 GXP as a replacement for a failed Seagate 40 GB drive. If you need a fast drive, but don't want to fork out for SCSI, this IDE drive should have what you need - it spins at 7,200 rpm, in comparison with many cheaper drives which can only manage 5,400 rpm. This makes a big difference if you use your computer for games or video editing. I bought the OEM version of the drive, so I can't include any details on the quality of the manual or any accessories included in the retail version. Of course, if you don't need the cables and other superfluous junk that comes packaged in the retail version, you can save yourself around £10 to £20 by buying the OEM version... Read review

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Advantages: Fast and silent
Disadvantages: None

...7 weeks ago i had an IBM hard drive die on me whilst my PC was booting up, it made lots of clicking sounds and failed to load into windows, trying to keep my temper i rushed down to my local PC world to see what i could pick up as i didnt want to be without my PC for more than a few hours. I decided upon buying the Samsung 40gb as it matched the spec of my previous IBM perfectly and my old hard drive was fine for what i needed it for until it packed up somewhat prematurely. The main spec of the Samsung is as follows... 40 gig storage space 7200 RPM 8.9 ms seek time UDMA/ATA 100 2mb buffer It also came with 2 features that my old IBM didnt... Noiseguard Impacguard The noise guard reduces noise output from the drive (makes it quieter) and impac guard means the hard drive is less susceptable to being damaged if accidentally banged... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, Quiet and Efficient
Disadvantages: None

...I bought this drive as a temporary solution whilst I saved for a 100GB Seagate Momentus. It cost me a tiny £37.59, but proved to punch well above it's wieght for the money. Firstly, lets look at the speed of this drive. It easily beats my desktop PCs backup slave drive, a 40GB Hitachi Deskstar. It also thrashed my 80GB Toshiba 2.5" hard disk in my other laptop (!) which cost me £75! So the drive is up to the performance of even larger dirves, but what about the noise levels? Thankfully, noise is non-existent with the Momentus. All that is audible is the occasional seek, but nothing much compared to the 80GB Toshiba 2.5" laptop hard disk. You can hear that on idle, and every tiny movement it makes is clearly audible. A real nightmare when you're trying to concentrate on a really important piece of coursework, or trying to enjoy some... Read review

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Advantages: Fast
Disadvantages: Cost

...of DDS (Four flavours) which is a small 4mm tape, 8MM and DLT which looks very like a fat LTO tape (There are a few others but these were the main players). While the above are still in use this is mainly due to the high cost of LTO. If LTO is so expensive then why bother with it? Because it does all of the above very, very well. According to datasheets each tape SHOULD last up-to 250,000 hours before failing (MTBF, Meantime Between Failures) which is the same as DLT IV (Nearest rival) but the head life is double the DLT at 60,000 hours. This means, in theory, your tape should last twice as long. An LTO tape can be written to at rates of 20-30MB per Second. This is very quick meaning that large amounts of data (I.E. Up-to 200GB) can be backed up very quickly (DLT Manages 6MB per Second). Size: ***** An LTO tape is 4.1 x 4.0 x 0.8 in. (105... Read review

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Advantages: Reliable, efficient data storage. Good compatibility
Disadvantages: Noisy, capacity not the greatest, speed.

.... The knowledge base online is great and the telephone support has talked us through a couple of issues we have experiences with the Media for the drives. Always resolved our problems and very willing to help. Storage capacity. The tapes are able to store 40Gb of information uncompressed and 80Gb compressed. Compressed data is obviously taking longer to access but it still is a good enough storage volume for most small to medium businesses. Prices? Well, new these drives were varying between £350 and £500 but today can be picked up on Ebay for as little as £35. I know as i have just sold one of ours! Tapes for the drive are quite expensive and cost about £40 each. When you consider you probably need at least 5 tapes, thats £200! We found the best and most reliable tapes are the ones made by Sony. Reason to change? Well, I sold the drives for 1... Read review

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