SDLT 220 Recommendation

[leon75]

I've tried looking for some reviews on different SDLT 220 models and have been unable to find any. Can anyone someone help me choose the best SDLT 220 External Tape Drive or point me to some reviews for them?

Don

 

[Vegito]

Dont really know any but quantum seem to corner the market for sdlts... i have several ext by quantum, several had stuck tape (bad tape) and their RMA did advanced 24 hour exchange w/o problem.

 

[MerlinRML]

Why are you looking at SDLT 220 in this day and age? It's the original SDLT drive, and it's close to 4 years old, not to mentioned end-of-lifed. SDLT 320 and SDLT 600 are both out and available. I'd recommend SDLT 320. The 600 is still pretty new, which means it's going to be pricier and has less backwards compatibility (if that's what you're after).

The pricing I saw showed 320s to be very close to 220s. I'd also expect the supply of 220 drives to mostly dry up in the next few years, as they've already been end-of-lifed.

When it comes to any kind of DLT, Quantum is the only game in town. No matter which drive or robot brand you buy, it's always a Quantum drive underneath. LTO on the other hand is made by HP, IBM, and Quantum (formerly Certance who was formerly Seagate).

 

[leon75]

Originally posted by: MerlinRML
Why are you looking at SDLT 220 in this day and age? It's the original SDLT drive, and it's close to 4 years old, not to mentioned end-of-lifed. SDLT 320 and SDLT 600 are both out and available.

Yeah I read a few posts on these boards mentioning the SDLT 220 and thought it would be good for my needs. I did not realize the model was so old (not to mention discontinued) until I went to Quantum's website. The SDLT 320 is more than what I really need in terms of storage capacity as I was looking for about 100 GB storage capacity. Is there any other tape solutions (DLT/DAT) that would better fit my need or is SDLT the best option?

Don

 

[MerlinRML]

There are a ton of questions that I could ask to help you size your data for current and future needs. The easiest recommendation is always buying more than you think you can use, since you usually find a way to use it.

To answer your question, however, you should consider looking at the DLT VS series. I've seen a few of them, and they are really geared towards people that can't afford the SDLT pricepoint/capacity. It's basically an extension of DLT4 (DLT7000 and DLT8000 drives), whereas SDLT was a replacement for DLT. I've only glanced at the DTL VS Autoloaders available from Quantum, and they seem to be a lower end but decent solution. I've seen a few of them at work, but I didn't really get a feel for how well they worked.

If you do decide to look at the SDLT solutions, you should also consider LTO. It's a direct competitor to SDLT, and they've done a tremendous job of taking a huge chunk of the market away from DLT in 5 or so years it's been around. I usually can get LTO for around the same price point as SDLT and you get slightly better speeds and capacity.

There is also AIT. I'm not a huge fan of it, but the it does seem to work pretty well. It's also usually a fair amount cheaper than SDLT/LTO, but you get slower speeds and less capacity there. AIT is a step up in terms of speed and capacity from DAT.

So the hierarchy of speed/capacity would go like this:
DAT < (AIT OR DLT VS) < (SDLT OR LTO)

Now these are fairly general statements, as there are a number of versions of each one and it depends on which one you'd get. In your case, without much to go on, I'd probably recommend the AIT3 or 4 or the DLT VS 60 or 180.

In regards to your original question about which brand to go with, it doesn't really matter a whole lot. Quantum makes DLT. Sony makes AIT. HP, Quantum, and IBM make LTO. The name on the casing doesn't make a whole lot of difference beyond that, unless you're buying a tape robot or autoloader. Most of the different tape drives you buy are exactly the same and there's just a different case, power supply, and SCSI cable.