600 SDLT tape drive backward compatibility

[Wanda_5]

hi,

just a simple question from a newbie..
if i buy a 600SDLT tape drive, can it still read/write to my 160/320 SDLT tapes?

thanks!

[Nemer_1 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

see the media compatibility in the technical specification section in this URL:

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11840_div/11840_div.html#Compatibility

[David Ruska]

Just to make sure you read the fine print, it is backwards READ compatible only. You CANNOT write on SDLT 320 tapes.

That is different from HP Ultrium drives that (so far) read back 2 generations and write back one (so you don't need to immediately buy new tapes).

If you need to replace your media to update to a new drive technology, make sure you consider the Ultrium960 (800GB compressed) along with the SDLT600.

[Scott McIntosh_2]

SDLT 220 drives can read and write SDLT 220 format.

SDLT 320 drives can read and write SDLT 220 and SDLT 320 format.

SDLT 600 drives can write only SDLT 600 format, but can read SDLT 220 and SDLT 320 format.

This is because SDLT 220 and SDLT 320 write only to SuperDLTtape I carts while SDLT 600 can only write to SuperDLTtape II carts.

So you would need completely new SuperDLTtape II media if you moved to SDLT 600, but you would be able to still read your old SuperDLTtape I carts.

[Scott McIntosh_2]

Oh, and then I forget why I even responded in the first place. You can somewhat see all of this via Quantum's media compatibility tool on their website. Not nearly as clear as their old PDF chart, IMO, but it's all they offer today.

And then they don't even let me give you a link directly to it, so go to www.quantum.com, select Products->Tape Drives->DLT and under Related Links on the right you will see the Media Compatibility tool. Click on SDLT 600 and you will see that it can read tapes written by SDLT 220, SDLT 320, and DLT VS160 drives, but no drives can read what the SDLT 600 writes, which it writes to SuperDLTtape II, which is not what your SDLT 220 and SDLT 320 drives use.

Like I said, not quite directly clear, but it's what we have to work from.

Thanks,
Scott
HP Support

[Wanda_5]

thank you all for heping out! enjoy your points!