HP USB 2.0 Tape Drive

[Jerry McAllister]

On Wed, Dec 09, 2009 at 03:50:04PM -0800, Doug Sampson wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm looking to buy a tape drive and am currently looking at USB 2.0 DAT tape
> drives from HP. I searched the hardware compatibility list and cannot locate
> any information tape drives except the disclaimer that SCSI tape drives do
> work on SCSI controller cards that are recognized by the FreeBSD OS. The
> only thing I can find is that apparently the ehci driver must be used if USB
> 2.0 interface is to be used with a tape drive. 
> 
> Does anyone have had positive or negative experience using these USB-based
> DAT tape drives? Specifically, I am looking at the HP (Hewlett-Packard)
> StorageWorks Q1581SB DAT 160 Tape Drive. If there are other branded USB
> 2.0-based tape drives (i.e. Quantum) that you've used with little or no
> problems, I would be interested in knowing about these.

I don't think you will have a problem using a USB2 interface.
But, I really cannot recommend DAT.   That type of system seems
to have been pushed beyond its ability.    The tapes fail
frequently.    The only thing nice about DAT is its rapid search
ability.   But, if you can't read what you thought you wrote, it
doesn't matter how fast you can search for it.

////jerry


> 
> ~Doug
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