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

...As most of you may be aware, computer data is very important to most of us in out jobs today. However, what happens if that data is suddenly lost or destroyed? Well, I can tell you, we would be in a right mess! Therfore the best method to protect yourself is to back up your computer data regularly! This is ok on your home computer as a lot of people back up their important files to memory stick, DVD or CD. But what happens in the office where there are lots of shared files and data? enter the data tape drive. Yes your servers at work are probably backed up onto tapes. These are not too dissimilar to your Audio tapes of a few years back. They are magnetic tapes that store large amount sof computer data on them via a tape drive. Im going to tell you all about my reliable workhorses I have here at work. The HP DLT VS80 tape drives... Read review

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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... 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... Read review

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Advantages: Big memory, not heavy in weight, long battery life
Disadvantages: None that I can see

...I purchased an Ipod classic and I must say that it is one of the best purchases I have made. It has a massive memory and easy to use with iTunes. Movies, TV programmes, music and photos, everything is on mine and it is so easy to add and take off things you don't require for a while. I have 80GB and I have 600 photos, 520 songs and 60 movies on it and I still have 40GB to go. Absolutely brilliant, my friend has just bought a 160GB and it is so easy to use he doesn't need my instruction to use it for the first time. With a large compacity this is certainly one for all generations and is great if you are travelling because you can take advantage of the long life battery and watch films, tv or listen to music while you travel.... Read review

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Advantages: stylish, great features
Disadvantages: poor earphones, shiny silver back

...The iPod Video 80gb is the ultimate in portable mp4 players dominating over 50% of the market. It is suprisingly small and fits into trouser pockets very nicely and is the ultimate cool accessory to have. Also the iPod is good value at £200. This thing is like a small hard drive, 80GB is the amount of storage I have on my laptop. There is so much space on this thing that I doubt you will fill it with your music collection unless you have 20,000 songs. The ability the iPod has to play videos is great as you can download music videos and other videos such as comedy videos and cartoons off of iTunes for free in some cases although the screen isn't the largest and you will not be able to see films that well because the screen is small. Another great feature is the ability to store pictures. On your iPod you can now store your... Read review

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Advantages: Quick transfer speed,
Disadvantages: Fairly Bulky

...What can i say this is an internal had-drive which obviously integrates within a computer system. Nowadays 80GB is not enough for anyone as programs are now increasing in size due to their complexity and what they have to offer. A hard drive is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. Non-volatile storage is simply the name given to a storage device which can retain stored data even when not powered. With a volatile storage device being one that can not retain saved data e.g. RAM (Random Access Memory). I used to have an 80 GB hard drive in the past on my "OLD" PC, which was about 5 years ago. Now i have a 300 GB hard drive which i have to admit is filling up really quickly. Due to the number of files stored e.g music, photo, video etc. This particular... Read review

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Advantages: 80Gb disk, FM radio, video player, wireless synchronisation, neat device and OS
Disadvantages: Problems with dvr-ms files, annoying synch app, possible probs with encrypted wireless

...The Microsoft Zune 80 is the Zune 30's bigger brother. It plays MP3, WMV, WMA, MP4 music and video files, displays JPEG pictures and has an FM tuner, but its real value is its truly whopping 80GB hard disk which can hold my entire music library and several full length films. It also supports wireless connection to your home network and can transfer music wirelessly to nearby Zune users (with restrictions) should you have the urge so to do. Given that there are few Zune users in the UK, this latter facility is currently of little value. The device itself is light and neat, with a metal back and a clear glass front sporting only three buttons, each of which is overloaded with context dependent functions that take a little while to get used to. The central 'squircle' button (i.e. a squarish-circle) is the Zune's answer to the ipod 'wheel... Read review

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Advantages: YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIES AND COMPLETE ALBUM COLLECTION IN YOUR POCKET
Disadvantages: SOUND LEVEL ON MOVIES NOT GREAT

...I bought my Ipod Classic around a month ago to basically be able to carry all my albums round with me at all times and have a couple of my favourite movies to hand if I am ever bored. I used to have an Ipod Nano and thought that 2 GB of memory would be plenty for what I needed but soon found that I couldn't fit no way near half of my albums on there and had to cherry pick my favourite songs due to there being not enough space available. Now having 80GB it's surprising how much you can actually fit on it. I currently have around 15 movies, a season of lost and over a 100 albums and am still well under 30GB. It's unbelievable. Unless you would like to put all your movie collection on to your Ipod then I can definitely assure you that an 80GB capacity would more than cover your requirements. The Ipod has a great new feature... Read review

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Advantages: Super simple data/File sharing across a home network
Disadvantages: Can't really think of any...

...I've been very pleased with my Ximeta 80 GB external drive (120GB and 160GB versions alre also available). Ximeta's NetDisk is the world's first consumer-friendly, external Ethernet/USB 2.0 combination Hard Disk Drive (HDD) using Ximeta's "revolutionary" NDAS (Network Direct Attached Storage) technology, which allows direct connection to any network without the need for IP configurations or expensive servers ! I have it connected to my home network (by cable to my router - a wireless version is also available) so 2 different computers can access shared data/music/video files: - Central MP3 library that can be played from any computer on the network - Central video library of camcorder footage - Central backup of essential files The setup was very simple (although not quite plug & play), I just connected the Net... Read review

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Advantages: Size, Memory Space
Disadvantages: None

...I bought my 80gb Apple Ipod in stylish black, almost 6 months ago. Since then, it's been a great portable music system, maybe even the paradigm of a near perfect MP3 player. The sound quality is near on perfect (depending on your earphones), and i belive it's the best in its kind, as i found the Ipod Nano to have consistant sound problems. The new scroll wheel is extrememly easy to use, directly contrasting to the Creative Zen scroll bar, which becomes increasingly tedious at times. What I like most about this product though, is the fact it hasn't followed the " The Smaller The Better" regime. This allows the 80gb Ipod to sit firmly in your pockets, thus preventing you from mimicking a paranoid schizophreniac, and constantly checking your pockets to see if you've left it on the bus. Overal, the 80gb Ipod is great value for money... Read review

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