Alternative to OnStream tape drives ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ftang Blobby
  • Start date Start date
F

Ftang Blobby

With Onstream recently going bust and the strong possibility that
media will become hard to get I am starting to plan for a replacement
drive to my DI-30 which has served me very well for over 2 years I'm
assuming that this means the death of the ADR format as I haven't read
of any companies taking on this technology.

One of the great strengths of the ADR format was its quiet operation.
My office is in the room next door to our bedroom and I need a quiet
tape drive which will allow me to continue doing backups overnight.

It is impossible to hear my OnStream drive in operation from the
bedroom. An obvious choice of drive would be something like a DLT1
drive, but, if our model at work is anything to go by, they are quite
noisy in operation and would certainly keep us awake at night.

Can anyone recommend a tape format which is as reliable as my OnStream
(no failures, no read errors or write errors in over 2 years), quiet,
and can store about 15Gb of data or more on a single media.

I know DDS drives are quiet but I've heard bad things about
reliability and problems recovering data from these. DLT is noisy.
What about AIT or VXA formats ?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

FB
 
Where did you hear this news? AFAIK, Onstreamdata is still around.
Didn't they just announce second generation ADR drives?
Click to expand...

Yes they did and I was very surprised last week when I found out
they'd gone bust again (they USA company went bust a couple of years
ago and the Dutch branch took over). The new generation of tape drives
looked very good. Its such a shame as I personally think the ADR
format is excellent. I sure hope another company takes it on and that
ADR doesn't go the way of the betamax video.

Personally it affects me greatly as I have 2 DI-30 drives (one in use
and one spare which I bought from a friend) and 22 tapes which is
quite an investment. Having to move to another format will cost me a
fortune but I need to have access to archived data and also need
offsite storage. DVD and CD just don't have the capacity and HDs are
too delicate for this purpose IMV.

I found out when I tried to buy some tapes from my usual supplier to
discover that they no longer had any products by Onstream. I got in
touch with them and they told me they'd recently gone bust. Their web
site is down and I can only find one supplier in the UK with any tapes
left.

The demise of Onstream is mentioned in the Oct 2003 issue of PC Pro
magazine here in the UK.

Bloody typical of my luck though. I finally get all the tapes I need
(I've been buying 2 a month for quite a while) and the bloomin
manufacturer goes bust. I might be able to keep using the drives and
my existing tapes for a while but without access to new media and
cleaning cartridges, I'm going to be stuck sooner or later. I'm going
to have to start saving up for a new drive. Hopefully someone will
take on ADR before I get enough to buy a replacement and I can spend
the money on something else.

FB
 
With Onstream recently going bust and the strong possibility that
media will become hard to get I am starting to plan for a replacement
drive to my DI-30 which has served me very well for over 2 years I'm
assuming that this means the death of the ADR format as I haven't read
of any companies taking on this technology.

One of the great strengths of the ADR format was its quiet operation.
My office is in the room next door to our bedroom and I need a quiet
tape drive which will allow me to continue doing backups overnight.

It is impossible to hear my OnStream drive in operation from the
bedroom. An obvious choice of drive would be something like a DLT1
drive, but, if our model at work is anything to go by, they are quite
noisy in operation and would certainly keep us awake at night.

Can anyone recommend a tape format which is as reliable as my OnStream
(no failures, no read errors or write errors in over 2 years), quiet,
and can store about 15Gb of data or more on a single media.

I know DDS drives are quiet but I've heard bad things about
reliability and problems recovering data from these. DLT is noisy.
What about AIT or VXA formats ?

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

We have DDS-3 drives at work, and they are quiet and have been generally
reliable. We had one drive go bad, but others are several years old and
still working. I've restored from tapes several times. DDS4 offsers higher
capacity. I've also read of DDS6 (I guess they skipped DDS5), but haven't
seen drives for it yet.
 
....
The demise of Onstream is mentioned in the Oct 2003 issue of PC Pro
magazine here in the UK.
Click to expand...
....

Was it just a mention, or did they give any details? This is the first I
have
heard; and we are(were) one of their resellers. Our distributor doesn't
seem to know anything either; and they still have drives and tapes in
current inventory.

FWIW: VXA, VXA2 is probably quieter and less expensive; however it is
another single vendor solution. Sony seems to be sharing the AIT, AIT2,
and AIT3 technology.


William
 
Ftang Blobby said:
Yes they did and I was very surprised last week when I found out
they'd gone bust again (they USA company went bust a couple of years
ago and the Dutch branch took over). The new generation of tape drives
Click to expand...

[snip]

Well, that sucks. I have an SC-30 and a stack of tapes myself. I
guess that explains why their web site appears to be dead.
 
Ftang Blobby said:
On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 17:39:27 -0400, "William"


Check out the following URL:
http://www.maststorage.com/_eng/news_press/newsletter/news24e.pdf
Click to expand...
Thanks; not many details, but more than I had.
Although they have a declining stock, both of our distributors here in the
US,
have the products listed as current. I notice even at the MAST site, they
have
not changed their ADR sales pages.

I wonder where Onstream's assets are going, especially their IP.
Apparently,
just having one of the best technologies wasn't good enough; hopefully a
good
company that does not have NIH syndrome will buy, support and develop the
technology.


William
 
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