DDS or DAT Backup Alternative to LTO

[Tim Jones]

Hi Folks,

We've been chatting a lot about using LTO tape drives in other threads and it was mentioned that the entry fee for LTO can be a bit steep for getting started with tape-based archiving. DAT is a whole different creature price-wise.

When you talk about DAT, many of you might automatically think of Alesis ADAT (Audio DAT) recording solutions. While the mechanism used is the same, the manner in which the data is written is different.

Also, until last year, 4MM and DAT were synonyms for DDS device storage. However, with the advent of DAT-160 and the upcoming DAT-320, 4MM is no longer a generic name for these devices. The new drives use an 8MM tape instead of a 4MM tape. The cassettes are the same size in the width and depth measurements, but they are thicker to handle the 8MM wide tape.

Here's a look at the currently available DAT family:

• DDS-3 or DAT24: 12GB native capacity, 2.5MB/sec native write speed
• DDS-4 or DAT40: 20GB native capacity, 2.5MB/sec native write speed
• DAT72 (not DDS-5): 36GB native capacity, 2.5MB/sec native write speed
• DAT160: 80GB native capacity, 5MB/sec native write speed
• DAT320: 160GB native capacity, 5MB/sec native write speed

Note that as with LTO, the DAT product line is both backwards read and write compatible with lesser versions. For example:

DDS-4 will write DDS-4 and DDS-3, and will read DDS-2, DDS-3, and DDS-4.​

The DAT family is supported by HP, Tandberg Data, Quantum and Sony as device manufacturers and all of the major media manufacturers are producing tapes for the drives.

While DAT doesn't offer the shelf life of LTO, it will still support archive retention of 20 years or more depending on media storage. As part of our BRU release testing, we have a DDS-1 60M tape (1.2GB) that was written on an Archive Python DDS-1 drive in 1991 that we restore from. This tape is still showing 0 errors in all of our restore tests and it's been accessed far more times than an average user's tape would be accessed.

Additionally, because DAT drives are available in USB format, you can use them with a laptop where LTO would not be possible.

When looking for a DAT drive, most current drives will probably be HP or Tandberg Data since the Quantum and Sony offerings are usually captive (meaning they come as part of a system solution rather than as a standalone tape device).

Pricing on DAT drives start around $600 and head up to a bit over $1,200 for the SAS DAT-160 drives.

 

[CameronORourke]

BRU PE and hardware bundles look interesting

BRU PE and hardware bundles look interesting

I just discovered BRU's PE software for the media industry and their hardware bundles this morning and am pretty excited about it:
http://www.productionbackup.com/info/bundles.php

The BRU software has the checksumming and corruption detection that I've been looking for, and the bundles include both low-cost DAT options as wells as LTO in Mac-friendly configurations.

I'm going to test out the BRU PE software and see how it goes. Reading through the owners manual it looks like it has some great features, especially for multi-site productions.

Cheers,
Cameron