dlt vs80 drives

[lspook2]

how reliable are they in the hardware sense. i've seen 2 go belly up in less than a year of them being installed. one was in an ibm the other in a hp. i think the hp one may have to be rma'd again.

just wondering if they are any good.

would like peoples opinions.

 

[paparazi]

lspook2
Maybe I'm just dumb but could you uncode your message for me "dlt vs80 drives"
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[jimbuddy]

It depends on what enviroment you are considering and the data being backed up (daily,full ,etc)I had the dlt-vs80 which is 40/80 and it did a modest job, BUT was not reliable. it comes with a 3year warranty and hp service is next to none. I had mine exchanged 4 times and after some discussion with hp they upgraded me for FREE to the ULTRIUM drive 200gb . this is pure sweetness. no problems with tapes or cleaning issues. I have used dat,dlt but will never go back .sold on the hp LTO.

If you do decide LTO the tapes like any other are not cheap, I checked around and the prices ranged around 50 to 71 bucks each. shop shop shop. I did and got the hp tapes from INSIGHT.COM for 26 bucks each.


Jim

 

[lspook2]

lol.

basically im asking about the drives is do they have a high failure rate ( are they a cr!p unit) .
i've seen a few of the dds drives and they seem to keep going for years.

i'm not too happy with 2 drives having to be send back to the manufacturers to be replaced. we've only put in 2 or 3 of the drives so far.

 

[NortonES2]

Not had good experience with the 40/80 drives, so far had no issues with SDLT 160/320 though.

-------------------------------

If it doesn't leak oil it must be empty!!

 

[jimbuddy]

as I mentioned returned 4 drives under warranty. I had the latest scsi card, drivers and made numerous changes to the scsi card settings. 20,40,60,80,160. you can basically speed up the card or slow it down. hours of troubleshooting and diagnostics with hp . my experience is the vs80 is a downgrade (low end dlt)and when you exchange drives hp sends out replacement drives that are refurished.
not new ones and the big thing to think about is your warranty period is original date of purchase.

 

[lspook2]

another thing i've noticed is the door on the drives breaks very easily. the one thats in the hp machine the door broke on the origional and the door broke on the replacement after only a few weeks.

both machines are set to backup 5 days a week and backup all the users stored files and exchange information. it would be a big backup. one machine only have 1 set of tapes to backup to each week. the hp has 2 sets so 1 set of 5 tapes would be used every 2 weeks.

 

[kmcferrin]

I second the motion for LTO Ultrium. I've used several LTO drives, and only had a problem with one (when someone broke the door). The drives work like a champ. LTO1 cartridges can be had for around $30 or less if you buy them in 20-packs and shop around. LTO2 and LTO3 are more expensive, but basically double and quadruple the speed and capacity respectively. The cartridges cost more though, it seems like about $55 for LTO2 and $120 for LTO3.