SDLT & DLT Media Compatibility

[Ian Reid_2]

Can anyone confirm if DLT 40/80 media can be read and used in a SDLT 320 drive?
Is DLT technology similarly backward compatible like DAT?

[Marino Meloni_1]

SDLT can only read DLT cartridges
see link for compatibility

http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/pdfs/media/dlt-sdltcompat.pdf

marino

[Kurt Beyers.]

Ian,

The SDLT 320 tape drive is the second SDLT drive after the SDLT 220. The SDLT 320 is for HP customers who use Corporate-to-Enterprise servers and require high performance and capacity and enterprise class reliability. Backward-read compatibility to existing DLT and SDLT-based solutions provides the highest level of investment protection while offering a smooth transition path to new SDLT based data protection solutions. The SDLT 320 offers backward-read compatibility to the SDLT 220 and the DLT 80, it is also write-compatible with the SDLT 220 and utilizes the same DLT1 media and cleaning cartridge as the SDLT 220.

best regards,
Kurt

[Mahesh Kumar Malik]

Hi Ian

Super DLTtape technology offers backward-read compatibility for DLT Media

DLT technology is NOT backward compatible with DAT

Regards
Mahesh

[Scott McIntosh_2]

Actually, SDLT 600 drives do not have the backwards read compatibility (BRC as Quantum refers to it) for DLTtape IV media. So that BRC to be able to read your old DLTtapeIV media is only with the SDLT 220 and SDLT 320 drives.

There's also a FAQ document on Quantum's website that talks about S11, S12, and S13 revisions of SDLT drives, although I don't know what those S numbers refer to, or if that was only with SDLT 220 stuff. But S11 didn't have any BRC, S12 had BRC with DLTtape IV media in DLT 7000 and 8000 format, and S13 has BRC with DLTtapeIV media in any format.

"40/80" is too generic, as it could either be DLT 8000 or DLT1/DLT VS80, which are not considered the same for this purpose.

[Ian Reid_2]

Thanks for everyones help.