DAT24e C1556D compatability with 40GB tape C5718A

[CA859913]

Is the DDS-3 DAT24e drive compatible with the 40 GB DDS-4 tape, C5718A. The specifications of the tape claim they are compatible with DDS-2 and DDS-3 drives. Just wanted to know if anyone out there is using, and can confirm. Thanks

[Rothery Harris]

Yes it is fully compatible. The DAT40 DDS-4 drive will read and write DDS-3 tapes. The DAT24 drive will not read DDS-4 tapes. You cannot use 60m DDS-1 tapes in the DAT40 drives and you can only read the 90m DDS-1 tapes.
Try to keep to one type of media where possible as changing media re-profiles the read and write heads slightly. Its fine to use the occaisonal tape to transfer some data but not say to alternate tapes on a daily basis. In the worst case scenario drive life will be reduced.

Rothery

[CA859913]

Thanks for previous response.

If I use the DDS-4 40 GB tape in my DDS-3 DAT24e drive, will I be able to store 40 Gbytes of data on the tape?

[Rothery Harris]

Dear Josh,
You cannot use DAT40 tapes in a DAT24 drive they will be ejected immediately. The DAT40 drives are backwards compatible using DDS-3 or DDS-2 tapes.
Check out the compatibility here.

http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/products/media/tapebackup_media/tape_dds/compatibility.html

Sorry about the confusion.

Rothery

[CA859913]

I believe some of my confusion came from HP's site. If you check this link I believe it says that the DDS-4 tapes are compatible with DDS-2 and 3 drives.

http://www.bstore.hp.com/cgi-bin/hpbs/specshtml.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1148204189.1035323824@@@@&BV_EngineID=kadcfhejemjgbemgckcfijcii.0&oid=14581