Tape Drive

[kaiser_alam]

What are the advantages/disadvantages of a Tape Drive?

Why is Zip drive more popular than Tape drive although most Tape drive Cartridges are bigger than Zip and less expensive?

How reliable is it to back up on a tape drive?

Recently I bought Iomega Ditto Tape Drive from Ebay and at present waiting for it to be delivered. I spent about US$60.00 for 10 GB Backup. Is it worth the money?

[PirSaheb]

ZIP Drives are not more popular than Tape Drives as a back up device. Zips capacities are usually 100 and 250 MB which is lot less than the size of most companies data base+. Zips are meant for home computers whereas, Tape Back Ups are usually for Servers. And hey, Tape drives are not cheaper! Good SCSI Tape Drives run for somewhere between few 3 to 4 figures. Tape Drives can back up upto tera bytes.

For home computers, I recommend CD writer as back up. Unless, Iomega comes up with something new, CD writer is going to take the market of ZIP.

Pir Saheb