Tape Backup on Network

[Jack Sigafoos]

My Colorado Tape Backup drive is a model T3000

I have a small office 5 user peer-to-peer network. 4 of my five work stations are running Windows XP – one workstation (seldom used) is running Windows 98 and the server is running Windows 98.

My server is the oldest machine on the network with a 400 mHz processor. The server has a Colorado Tape Backup drive in it that I use to back up the server files nightly.

I want to replace the server with a newer CPU with a faster processor. I can’t move the Tape backup system to a new CPU because of its age.

Can I hook up the old server to a new CPU to do the tape backup only? If so, where could I find information on doing this

[Steven Clementi]

Jack:

Why can't you move the tape drive over? You should be able to use the interface card it is using (unless that is the problem and it does not have one). Assuming it is scsi based and it has a PCI adaptor, the new computer/server should have an available PCI slot and should work just fine with the proper driver loaded.

If you can't physically move it, then you can just leave the 98 machine on the network and do a backup of the LAN. It iwll be slower, but better then plunking down money for a newer tape drive/tapes/scsi card... etc. (for now at least).

[Jack Sigafoos]

Steve,

Thanks.

I contacted HP about moving the tape drive to a new box and they said it wouldn't work with XP, which the new server would have as its OS. I'm not positive about the slot, but since the old server is a 4 or 5 year old dinosaur it's probably different.

I will probably just back up across the network. It may be slower but will run in the middle of the night, so this isn't an issue.

Do you know if I would have any problems adding another CPU as the backup unit since the number of CPUs on my network is 5 workstations and a server and I would be adding this to a 5 user network?

[Steven Clementi]

You shouldn't have any trouble, except if you do not have an available NIC port on your LAN switch. If you don't, you would need a second switch/hub.

Steven