using ait2 turbo. what's my next move?

[maxhowarth]

about 15 years ago i started backing up with dds1, then 2 then 4. then moved to ait, then ait2, then ait2 turbo. i'm pleased with the performance we get (although it never hurts if it's faster of course).

 

now that sony are stopping production of ait drives i'm considering my options for the future. my requirements are:

 

• tape drive

• a format that has longevity (i'd like to avoid another format change after this one for at least 5 years)

• connection direct to mac pro (usb, fw400/800, etc or via a pci card if required). each backup device sits in an audio post production control room rather than in a server /machine room

• >80gb per tape

• and ideally something that doesn't sound like a hairdryer when it's on

 

any suggestions?

 

[Daniels]

I would go with DAT/DDS tapes. The DAT 320 tapes were just released in November 2009. These are supposed to hold the 160 GB uncompressed and 320 GB compressed. From what I can find it looks like you can get DAT drives in USB, SCSI, and SAS interfaces.

[jaduke]

about 15 years ago i started backing up with dds1, then 2 then 4. then moved to ait, then ait2, then ait2 turbo. i'm pleased with the performance we get (although it never hurts if it's faster of course).

 

now that sony are stopping production of ait drives i'm considering my options for the future. my requirements are:

 

• tape drive

• a format that has longevity (i'd like to avoid another format change after this one for at least 5 years)

• connection direct to mac pro (usb, fw400/800, etc or via a pci card if required). each backup device sits in an audio post production control room rather than in a server /machine room

• >80gb per tape

• and ideally something that doesn't sound like a hairdryer when it's on

 

any suggestions?

 

Max,

 

I'm in a similar situation with Tandberg offing VXA. I was looking forward to keeping my VXA stuff running, but looks like it isn't to be.

 

I've been looking at DAT 320 as an option. It has 160 GB native capacity.

 

You can get USB connected drives (no FW, unfortunately) from a few different sources like HP or Tandberg (rebadging the HP drive).

 

SAS is also an option for the DAT 320, but not for me as I'm currently using a 2009 vintage Mac Mini as my backup server.

 

The DAT/DDS roadmap has ~300gb native drives arriving 2-3 years after the retail intro of DAT 320; we'll see if that happens.

 

Cheers,

Jon

 

 

[maxhowarth]

thanks for the suggestions.

 

jon, that's interesting about vxa – vxa320 was an alternative i'd earmarked.

 

presumably there's no point in looking at the sas version because i get 12mb/s over usb 2.0 with our ait2 turbo drives and that's the dat 320 speed limit anyway? or am i missing something obvious.

 

 

 

 

[twickland]

We followed your route through DAT 72; then moved to LTO, which we've been very happy with. Drives are more expensive than DDS, but the media is cheaper per GB.

[jaduke]

Max,

 

I don't think you're missing anything wrt DAT 320 speeds.

 

I'd like to go to LTO or another high-capacity format, but haven't found one that works with Firewire or USB; the capacity is the attraction there-I'd like to have my initial server backups fit onto a few tapes as possible.

 

Last year I took offsite (aka home) 14 or 15 VXA 320 tapes for my file server. I had about 12 tapes for the mail server. I was getting about 180-200 gigs on each tape. While the native capacity of DAT320 is about the same, I'm hoping for better compression.

 

Personally, I'd like to figure out a way to do a D2D2D(offsite) scheme. About the only way to do that would be through SSH as I don't think the old FTP route would be fast enough-same's true for AFP. Earlier this year, I tried to mount a volume on my home server on the office machine through SSH, using ExpanDrive, but couldn't get Retro 8 to recognize it.

 

Cheers,

Jon