>>> Never used DAT drives for backup, have you? ;-)
>> No, only for the last 6 years.
> 
> I feel for you.  I had tapes that actually verified nightly that were 
> completely useless to restore from.  This is back in the DDS-1/DDS-2 
> days, so maybe it's improved - but here's the thing:  DAT stands for 
> "Digital Audio Tape". 

We used to use DDS-3, DDS-4 and DAT-72. (Don't you love how all tapes 
have storage capacities "assuming 2:1 compression"? I have never seen 
any backup job achieve anything approaching 2:1 compression.) Never had 
any significant problem. After about 4 years the tape would wear out, 
but that's hardly a big deal assuming you notice this and replace the tape.

Never had any issues of any kind with restoring data from tape.

I *have*, however, had endless issues with BackupExec not actually 
****ing working properly! >_<

>>> Horrible quality of storage media, and terrible shelf life IME.
>> Really?
> 
> Yes, really.  With the DDS-2 tapes I was using at the time, the 
> manufacturer recommended no more than something like 10 or 20 uses.

> I'm glad I didn't pay for the drives - otherwise I'd have been more upset 
> that they burned out so quickly (about a year, IIRC - but I was running 
> backups on a more or less continuous basis as part of my testing).

I think we had 1 tape drive wear out. (We had about 6 of them.) And it 
was the oldest, crappiest one of the lot.

Seriously, I did tape backups every single weekday for 6 years and had 
almost no issues related to the tapes or tape drives. That's not what 
I'd consider "unreliable".

> I had much better luck with DLT drives.

I have no idea what DLT is.

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