Thanks to everyone for their very helpful replies to my question. I have some more investigation to do but am leaning toward sticking with the "IBM" tapes, given that in almost 3 years (and 520 tapes) we've had only 3 tapes fail. Mark's point "How much is your data worth?" is a very good one.
Thanks very much,
-- Graham Stewart Network and Storage Services Manager, Information Technology Services University of Toronto Library 130 St. George Street Toronto, Ontario [EMAIL PROTECTED] Canada M5S 1A5 Phone: 416-978-6337 | Fax: 416-978-1668
Richard Sims wrote:
The experienced-based responses on this issue have been excellent, and demonstrate the great value of our forum.
I don't believe it's been noted in past postings, but there is a Tape Technology Council (http://www.tapecouncil.org/), whose mission is to increase the awareness and understanding of taep technology, and to serve as a resource of information. Of pertinent note to this topic, they have an "Ask the Expert" form under the Resources tab, where you can ask questions about tape. This might be an interesting approach to take in pursuing batch quality issues. Don't miss the excellent Articles section under that tab.
Some other things worth checking out:
ADSM-TSM history (Mike Kaczmarski article for Computer Technology Review): www.plcs.nl/upload/files/nieuws/TSM%2010%20Years.pdf or www-1.ibm.com/industries/cpe/download9/19719/TSM_10_Years_CTR_Reprint.pdf
"Is it Tape *and* Disk or Tape *versus* Disk?" http://wwpi.com/CTR_Current/June04_2.asp
Richard Sims http://people.bu.edu/rbs
