What DLT drive for Scenarist under WinXP?

[tzic]

Hello,

I am thinking of buying a Quantum DLT 4000 or DLT 7000 drive so that I can write Scenarist's Dual layer projects on tape for replication.
Which drive would you recommend? Which one will run with no problems under WinXP. Any suggestions in general?
Thank you very much for your time!

Regards,
Tzic

[JF Sebastian]

tzic
Sorry can't comment about XP operability but in terms of operation, I use a DLT7000 daily on my office PC and it has never let me down. As it's outdated technology now the tapes are really quite cheap now in terms of GB/£, indeed they are often shipped in bulkpacks with discounts to try to shift them.
My drive is external and uses SCSI Differential connection into a PCI card. On a 35GB tape with standard hardware 2:1 compression, I can usually get around 60GB maximum on each tape. Apparently the determining factor in terms of how close you can get to the theoretical 70GB capacity is the setup of the host PC in terms of ability to supply the data fast enough. Of course if you wanted to you could buy super cheap 15/30GB DLTIII media, but it REALLY reads and writes slowly!
The newer SDLT machines can also backward-read DLTIV media as well so there's an easy upgrade path. If you go Ultrium, you still have to keep the DLT drive.

Hope this helps

JF

[tzic]

Thank you for your comments. Under what operating system is your DLT 7000 running? And finally, what is the model of your pci SCSI adapter (the one the DLT is plgged in to). Thank you very much!

[JF Sebastian]

tzic
Not in the office today so can't be 100% positive about the adapter but it's definitely running under Win 2000 Server and from memory it's an Adaptec 2944-UW Differential.

JF

[SurfDrifter]

I'm having on my home PC a Quantum 4000 internal, with a simple SCSI-2 card and author with DVDMaestro on WinXP without any problems. So, I believe you won't have any problem with Scenarist also.
Better buy though a 7000, because 4000 writes 1,5 MB/sec and this means about 2 hours for a dual-layer project.

[insite]

i've got a 4000 and it's a champ. bought if off of ebay for cheap. you will need to buy an hvd scsi card for your computer, though. they can be had for under $200 if you search around.

[SurfDrifter]

Yes, I bought 4000 from ebay for 60$.
But what do you mean with "HVD scsi card"?
The one that I have works great!

Do you mean that I'll need a different SCSI card, if I buy a 7000?

[insite]

the scsi cards that run your hard drives etc are lvd (low voltage differential). external scsi devices like the tape library that i have will usually use hvd (high voltage diff) to compensate for the additional resistance native to long cabling. if you have an hvd device, it will NOT work on an lvd card without a VERY expensive conversion device (cheaper to buy the hvd card). i'm looking back at the thread and you are speaking of dlt4000 internal devices. these are lvd. the device i have uses a quantum dlt4000 drive, but it's actually an external dlt library containing many tapes. as a result, it is hvd.

[TCCK]

DLT 8000 as DLT 4000 and 7000 have numerous issues with firmware and bad write errors. Thus why the 8000 was brought out to solve the 7000's issues.

And I suggest trying to find a ADIC DLT drive as they are one of the best.

I tested these for 5 years so I know.

You should also be able to find an appropriate SCSI card for this from the same supplier at the same time.