Colorado 250 drive

[GregRad]

Well, I was a computer nerd before the internet and have always been able to dig up information I need. I have also always despised HP as a large company full of hot air buying the talents of others. They have not let me down.
I was handed a Colorado 250mb Tape Drive. Remembering this is basically a HP drive, I went to their site. Maybe Anand can send someone who knows how to build a useful site over to HP....
Can someone tell me about this drive...is it worth keeping around? What tapes should I buy for it? Software? How much can it back up? How fast is it? How reliable is it?How do I connect it? I am too lazy to count the pins and see what cable matches up.
Now all of the above items should be contained on a specs sheet. If you find a specs sheet on this drive at the HP website, email it to me. I will send you a gift. Maybe even the drive!
Cheers
Greg

 

[Ronstang]

These drives were great when the average HD was about 500 megs. Even if you could get a four to one compression ratio it would take 20 tapes to back up a 20 Gig HD full of junk, that is not very practical. I would rather get a good backup program that uses CDRWs since their cheap and hold 3 times as much as those Colorado tapes, not to mention CD-writers a MUCH faster. It is also alot easier to find data on a CDRW than it is on a tape..........Let it go man.

 

[esung]

forget about this drive.. the drive uses QIC-80 tapes.. and it only stores 120MB true,250MB compressed. You have to have some luck trying to buy those QIC-80s.. it'll cost at least $10 for the tape,
where a blank CDRW will cost a buck..

I used to have a Colorado 250 lying around, but I get rid of it the moment my 2x CDR arrives..

 

[chemwiz]

They use a floppy cable, and connect to the floppy controller. They really hold 120MB, the "250" is with compression. Sure won't hold 250MB of mp3's! If you really want tapes for it, email me and I'll look for mine and send you the numbers off it.