20 Jan
2002
20 Jan
'02
4:28 p.m.
On Sun, 20 Jan 2002, Richard Erlacher wrote:
The MITechie should probably have stopped smoking that
rope long enough to
straighten out for a moment and read the documentation that comes with the
drives. Had he done so, he'd have known about the extensive and verbose error
reporting that's available and the thorough test and verification procedures
the mfg. provides.
And he probably shouldn't have believed the media manufacturers'
claims concerning tape life. Outside of Windows, 95% of the failed
restores I've seen were due to worn-out media (or dirty heads). IIRC,
Maxell claims something like 100 overwrites for their 8mm tape. I'm
rotating cartridges out after 20 overwrites, at the most. Tape's a lot
cheaper than data.
Doc