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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Which Quantum LTO with Macbook Pro?

Yep, pretty much the only LTO option for Macbook Pro. No one makes a proper ExpressCard to SAS or SCSI-3, that I'm aware of. :(

The A series is great, only down side is the lack of data format compatibility with tapes written in non-A drives (and vice versa) and no backward compatibility with LTO 1/2 media. This matters to some more than others.
 
I can not emphasize how much we love our Quantum A series LTO drive. We can hit it from any computer inside Offhollywood over our local network - it's a massive time saver and we are beating on it 24/7 and it hasn't chocked yet. Excellent product. Saved and made me thousands of dollars.
 
I've seen the LTO-3A desktop unit for under $6500 from an authorized seller. Sorry, can't say where for various reasons, but if you guys look around a bit you'll find 'em.

Quantum also has the LTO-3A SuperLoader 12-tape unit for $14K MSRP, but I've seen it around $11.5K. Looks really good.

What do I use? Well, I went for a small cube PC with internal RAID and internal LTO-3 drive. Came in about $2500 cheaper than the LTO-3A and it's OK, but hasn't been the workhorse that I wanted it to be. It's a pain to lug around and a Macbook Pro with eSATA RAID is a far more elegant in-field / on-set DIT station. So I'm probably going to get rid of this little cube PC and go with an LTO-3A for backups. Just makes more sense.

Like Offhollywood said, any system on the network can use it. It's a very simple system to work with and it seems Quantum has most of the kinks worked out that were affecting the unit several months ago.

In searching around for the drive, they're a bit tricky to find for some reason. It's actually easier to find the SuperLoader version.
 
Huh?

Huh?

Jeff Kilgroe said:
I've seen the LTO-3A desktop unit for under $6500 from an authorized seller. Sorry, can't say where for various reasons, but if you guys look around a bit you'll find 'em.
Click to expand...

Hi Jeff:

I'm a little confused. Hoping you can help me out here. In another thread about tape backup you had recommended the HP1760 which is LTO4 and is substantially less expensive ($2,484) than the LTO3 drives (older technology, smaller capacity) being recommended in this thread.

http://www.provantage.com/hewlett-packard-hp-eh920sb~7HPP90UL.htm

I feel like I must be missing something. Why would I want to pay $6,000 for a LT03 (400GB) capacity when I can buy the HP 1760 LTO4 (800GB) capacity for $2,500? There must be some major advantages of the other unit besides Gigabit ethernet?

Please explain. I really want to understand all this stuff before I buy a tape backup solution.

-shooter
 
Hi shooter,

First of all, this thread is over 6 months old. Not sure why Torrey dug it up -- why, Torrey?? Why? :) I know they have it in their shop. No disrespect to Torrey or Silverado, but the Quantum or HP LTO-4 units are a much better way to go. I'm sure Silverado could set up their customers with one of those as well.

Second... There really is no advantage to the LTO-3A other than perceived convenience. I have demoed the LTO-3A, on two occasions in fact. I wouldn't give you more than $1000 for one. It's just not worth more than that and Quantum's pricing on the unit is just flat-out stupid.

Gig ethernet is theoretically fast enough to handle 120MB/s sustained. Way faster than what the LTO-3 mechanism in the 3A drive can handle. Yet I found transfer rates to be abysmally slow, the server appiance that holds the 3A tape unit is just not up to snuff with with what it should be. The built-in FTP server sucks, it doesn't play nice with a lot of common FTP client softwares like CuteFTP or Cyberduck. Doesn't support a lot of common FTP functions, etc.. It's a joke. The Java applet interface is a bit better, but it's slow and clumsy. I can queue up a bunch of R3D files and start writing them to tape and it would just crawl... 35MB/s or so tops or moving half the speed it should move. For $6K I felt my money was spent better elsewhere. The only thing about the LTO-3A that is a true advantage is it's a stand-alone unit that is accessible over a conventional network. But don't get any ideas about having multiple users trying to submit files for backup at the same time. Once again, my little cube PC kicked ass in that regard. And 3A formatted tapes are only readable in a 3A drive. Whereas it seems most redusers going for tape backup are doing LTO-3 or 4 with Retrospect and or BRU. Much easier to share those tapes than it is to expect someone to own a $6K LTO-3A unit.

In my post above, from last June, you'll see that I opted against the LTO-3A and I built a small cube PC with internal LTO-3 drive. It was half the cost of the 3A unit and more capable, roughly the same size, a bit heavier... And even more elegant to run! It could run REDCINE on-set, doubled as a DIT workstation with complete offload and backup abilities. I've subsequently sold that system off to another reduser. Went with the Quantum LTO-4 desktop kit and that has turned out to be much better for archival purposes. I prefer my Macbook Pro for most of my DIT functions. If I need more than that, I load up a Mac Pro and kick some ass.

Of course, this thread was about connecting a tape drive to a Macbook Pro. Pipe dream, that... At least until someone decides to make a UW SCSI or SAS ExpressCard HBA. For that, the LTO-3A will serve. It wouldn't be my first choice... But that's just me.
 
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