🚀 go-pugleaf

Alan McConnell (alan@clark.net) wrote:
: A friend recently told me I should "back up my system".  I got him
: to first spell the word, then he explained the concept, and now I'm
: sold on the idea that this is something I should do<g>.  So I'm
: looking for advice on tape drives and tapes; I want to know what
: works and what is cheap, also whether a tape-drive in a bay, or
: external, thru /dev/lp0, is better(that last clause is faulty, but
: since I'm using vi I'll let it go<g>)


Alan,

I can speak from my experience - I have a Colorado Jumbo 250 hanging off
the floppy controller, and it works great with the FTAPE module.  Granted,
I can only back up about 350 M at a time, but for a 2 1/2 year old unit it
does a good job.  I'm drooling over the new 1.4M unit I've seen for ~ $220,
though!  *IF* it works with Linux, which I don't know if it does yet.

As for the /dev/lpo (parallel) models (e.g. Colorado Trakker), the Ftape 
Howto says explicitly that parallel tapes are not supported because they
use oddball proprietary standards.  Check the Ftape documentation...

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Garrett

--
Garrett P. Nievin, aging freshman, programmer, pilot, aerospace buff, Linux fan
HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH               | All opinions stated here are
FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON  JULY 1969, A.D.| probably not shared by anyone,
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND.            | least of all my employer.