DEC TF85 drive Compatibility with Latest DLT drives

[Noor Ahmed_1]

Hi Managers,

We are in process of replacing old VAX systems with new Itanium Servers with OpenVMS.
we are using DEC TF85 Drives as DATA starage with VAXs.
Can Any one have idea which DLT drive out of followings we can use with itanium servers to "READ" Data from TF85 Drives cartridges(DLTIII Tapes.


hp DLT VS 160 Drive
hp DLT VS 320 Drive
hp SDLT 600 Drive
hp Ultrium 230 Drive
hp Ultrium 460 Drive

Rgds
noor

[Jan van den Ende · Accepted solution]

Noor,

AFAIK, they all can READ tapes written on T*85.
However, the definive info will be in the drive's documentation.
That sure is NOT the case the other way round!

Proost.

Have one in me.

jpe

[Karl Rohwedder]

Noor,

pls. check tie Quickspecs found at:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/Division/10233.html

I would be surprised, if Ultrium (LTO) devices were able to read DLTtapes, but one never knows...

regards

[Uwe Zessin]

It's my understanding that the backward read compatibilty of the (S)DLT drives you mentioned is limited to DLT IV media (at least, that's what I read from the product specifications), so I am afraid that reading DLT III media is not possible.

An Ultrium cartridge is mechanically different.

[Art Wiens]

The best link I've found to explain media compatibilities is:

http://www.dlttape.com/Home.htm

Choose the "Media Compatibility" link.

Pops up a window with a Flash app that is quite good at explaining "What works with what".

Cheers,
Art

[Noor Ahmed_1]

Hi all,

I tried, tape (DLT III) written by TF85 Drive can be read on Compaq Sure Store DLT80 (DLT IV) Drive.
It means all (S)DLT Drives are backward read compatible with media (DLT III Tapes) written by DEC TF85/TF86 Drives.

off course Ultrium has different mechanical.

Thanx all who replied..

Rgds
noor