Driver for Onstream ADR2.60 IDE

[Jerry McAllister]

> 
> While we're on the subject - is there any good backup devices in the 60Gb
> range for FreeBSD that have a similar cost as the OnStream drive (what was
> it again, 300$? something like that?)?
> IIRC, my big beef with the OnStream drive (besides the weird format the
> driver used and slowness backing up/restoring) was the low quality and low
> lifespan of the tapes.
> I can pay around $500-$700 for a backup device, I've just never used a
> tape device that wasn't a quad-head 400+ tape capacity IBM drive so I'm
> not sure as to what would be good for general home backup use of around
> 60GB a week or so. TIA

You can get DLT and something called LTO (Linear Tape-Open) that can each
handle up to 100 GigaByte native (uncompressed) and whatever you can get 
over that compressed - the common practice is to assume 2:1 compression.
Both claim to be the most reliable tape formats out there.

I don't know what vendors or drivers are available for LTO, but the 
claim is that it is the fastest data transfer format.   If you can
get it in a 'standard' SCSI setup, you can probably make it work 
on FreeBSD.

The DLT comes in up to 100 GigaByte models too.  I know that you can 
get DLT in SCSI and that it works on FreeBSD because we have some Dell 
machines with the 40 GB version of DLT running and we didn't have to do 
anything but install GENERIC FreeBSD.

As for prices, the 40 GigaByte native versions of either fall in your
range.  The 100 GB versions are quite a bit higher.

You can also get something called AIT with which we have had good luck, 
but the capacity is about half the DLT or LTO drives.   Maybe they
also have newer, migher capacity models now too.  I haven't looked at 
them lately.

Do Google searches for DLT, LTO and AIT  and you will get lots of
hits with everything from white papers to vendors.   Unfortunately
there isn't a lot about FreeBSD drivers in those piles of info.

////jerry

> 
> ******************
> Jeremy D. Pavleck
> jeremy at pavleck.com
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 29 Aug 2003, Peter Elsner wrote:
> 
> > Short answer: No
> > 
> > Long answer: No, because OnStream isn't using a standard ATAPI driver for 
> > their IDE drives.
> > 
> > The make use of accessing the drive using very special commands in their 
> > proprietary backup
> > software.  Without the software the drive won't work.  I have already 
> > contacted On Stream about
> > this many times, (my boss insisted I get it working with FreeBSD), and to 
> > no avail, they will not
> > help me unless I'm running Windows.
> > 
> > Peter Elsner
> > 
> > 
> > At 05:42 PM 8/28/2003 -0700, you wrote:
> > >I have an Onstream ADR2.60 IDE backup drive that I would like to start using
> > >with my FreeBSD 4.8 system.  At startup I get a message via dmesg that there
> > >is no driver for this device..... 'kay.  An hour of searching Google yielded
> > >me no closer to a driver, so here I am....
> > >
> > >Can I use this drive with my system or do I have to bag it?
> > >
> > >Peter
> > >
> > >_______________________________________________
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> > >http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
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> > 
> > Peter Elsner <peter at servplex.com>
> > Vice President Of Customer Service (And System Administrator)
> > 1835 S. Carrier Parkway
> > Grand Prairie, Texas 75051
> > (972) 263-2080 - Voice
> > (972) 263-2082 - Fax
> > (972) 489-4838 - Cell Phone
> > 
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> 
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