8mm tapes

[Mark Bradley]

In article <550 at galen.acc.virginia.edu>, mlj8e at dale.acc.Virginia.EDU (Michael L. Johnson) writes:
> Now that SGI is marketing an 8mm Exabyte type tape drive I
> was wonder where to get the tapes.  Do these drives really
> need "data cartridges" or can they use the 8mm VHS tapes from
> K-mart?  Is there a good supplier of 8mm data cartridges at
> a reasonable price?
> (804)-924-8607                   Michael L. Johnson
> mlj8e at virginia.EDU               Pharmacology Dept.
> uunet!virginia!mlj8e             Box 448; Univ. of Va.
> mlj8e at virginia.BITNET            Charlottesville, Va. 22908

Although any decent 8mm tape should work, the vendor suggests that one
purchase Exabyte supplied tapes or the Sony tapes for best reliability.
SGI endorses only the Sony tapes that Exabyte themselves have qualified
and do resell under their own name.

You could buy these tapes from SGI, too.  I don't know what the lead time
is.  Minimum order quantity is a box of 10.  SGI part number for this is
X4-VC20; price is $500/box(10).  Priced to keep us out of the media supply
business, I suppose. :{)  Actually, we probably lose money on these, due to the
fact that processing the order, generating paperwork, doing the buying,
planning, material control, etc. cost more than the price of the tapes.

Either the Sony or Exabyte/Sony tapes are your most price/reliability
competitive product in 8mm media.  We have not qualified any other media
for this drive, and hence do not suggest/endorse use of any other tapes.
Personally, I do not intend to use other media for my backups due to 
lack of process control that leads to media defects, coercivity variations
and the like.

The drive and driver are quite forgiving of media flaws, generally speaking,
but I feel safer using media that has been thoroughly tested in tough
environments with positive results.

					markb


--
Mark Bradley				"Faster, faster, until the thrill of
IO Subsystems				 speed overcomes the fear of death."
Silicon Graphics Computer Systems
Mountain View, CA			     ---Hunter S. Thompson