29 Jan
2023
29 Jan
'23
5:07 p.m.
On 2023-01-28 19:31, Kevin Bowling wrote:
I'm not sure about 8mm tape specifically but the
Exabyte drives that
were common on 1990s UNIX systems failed a lot.
There was a large proliferation of tape technology in the 1980s and
1990s, many of them not great in any dimension.
DLT, LTO, and especially the "enterprise" ranges from StorageTek or
IBM from any time period are all extremely reliable.
The problem with the 4mm and 8mm was, they had this stupid rotating head
(heli scan?), which was a pain in the neck.
It was difficult to adjust, so you better read/wrote your tapes only
Put a lot of mechanical stress on the tape
Tape was thin, to have more capacity
After all, it was consumer stuff, ported to the wrong environment
9track, DLT work differently, that why we still have a chance to read
them :)