Taper drive.

I must be mad, don't answer that.

Having a bit of a tidy up and found my old HP traven tape drive, then I also found a old computer with EDIE and floppy connections, you know what that meant, I had to see if the tape drive works.
the computer works, has 4GB of ram and a AMD Athlon dual-core thing. got a 2.5 inch drive on it,
the tape software don't like 64 bit OS, so I am going to try windows 7 32 bit, just flashing it to usb now.

What fun, why do i do these things?


Tapes are not cheap, 4Gb, 8 compressed is around £50 or more, best to get second hand ones

i have 4 here somewhere, I found one.

Just a muck around. Mind you, if it works, I may use it for documents.

With the cost of flash drives, or external hard disks, is there really any point in reviving a tape drive (other than the challenge) As far as I know there was no support for these from HP after XP.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

With the cost of flash drives, or external hard disks, is there really any point in reviving a tape drive (other than the challenge) As far as I know there was no support for these from HP after XP.

Tape drives are still sold, but a bit on the pricey side as they for commercial use. I know someone who still use a tape back up system, and the tapes will last, he has back up over 10 years old and is still fine.

Just something to see if I could get it working, the software will not work on modern OS, but the drive is recognised. i found something called Bacula, but i have to stick a 64bit OS on the machine. I put a 32 bit one on as I thought the HP software needed it, but it still would not work. I suppose i need to go to Windows ME or something like that

Bacula is available for Linux, so that may be my next move.

Tape is used for enterprise; we have tapes in our data centres, and we use robotic tape libraries with multiple drives and the drives are fibre optic connected to Storage Area Networks. These things back up hundreds of servers using enterprise software.

Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is the technology, and it completely replaced Travan, and DAT, and SuperDAT type formats when writable CD (600mb), then writeable DVD (4gb) and then external USB attached flash and magnetic storage arrived.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Tape-Open

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

With the cost of flash drives, or external hard disks, is there really any point in reviving a tape drive (other than the challenge) As far as I know there was no support for these from HP after XP.

Reviving/maintaining/restoring old bits of kit is often just for fun. I maintain a lot of computer equipment plus veteran ham radio's/receivers/transmitters/transceivers which is great fun and I actually do have a lot setup in my shack and they get used.

I'll think of you tonight when I power up my 60+ year old Collins KWM-2 😉

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Tape is used for enterprise; we have tapes in our data centres, and we use robotic tape libraries with multiple drives and the drives are fibre optic connected to Storage Area Networks. These things back up hundreds of servers using enterprise software.

Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is the technology, and it completely replaced Travan, and DAT, and SuperDAT type formats when writable CD (600mb), then writeable DVD (4gb) and then external USB attached flash and magnetic storage arrived.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Tape-Open

I know about LTO, don't need anything like that. But it just proves that tape is still used and seems to be more reliable than other methods.
Also, I expect they are more secure than other methods.

It is just something to muck around with, I still have not got it going, been busy and also been very hot up here, so it is on the back burner for a few days. I am off work this work, first week off since January, so I have some things to do and will go back to it when I have nothing much else to do.

The only OS the software will work on is Windows Me and below , I don;t think that will be very secure on the net