Very Computer

I recently got some free QIC-40 tapes (3M DC-2000 and Global G2000).
I formatted one of them on a Colorado Jumbo 250 QIC-80 tape drive
and got about 80 Mb uncompressed capacity. That's proprotional to
the tape length (205 ft vs 307 ft for QIC-80). I notice the QIC-40
tapes are rated 12500 ftpi, a little lower than the QIC-80 ratings
of 14700 ftpi, which implies the data written for the QIC-80 format
might be a little too dense for the QIC-40 tapes. One small backup
I did compared okay, but I wonder how generally reliable QIC-40
tapes are when they are formatted and written with a QIC-80 tape
drive?

Does anyone have comments on reliabilty of QIC-40 tapes formatted
and written with a QIC-80 tape drive?

They would probably work OK --SHORT TERM--- Part of the problem is that
nobody can predict how long!
I did this a few times, but found that these took almost twice as long to
format, so I gave it up! The time wasn't worth it.

--

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|I recently got some free QIC-40 tapes (3M DC-2000 and Global G2000).
|I formatted one of them on a Colorado Jumbo 250 QIC-80 tape drive
|and got about 80 Mb uncompressed capacity. That's proprotional to
|the tape length (205 ft vs 307 ft for QIC-80). I notice the QIC-40
|tapes are rated 12500 ftpi, a little lower than the QIC-80 ratings
|of 14700 ftpi, which implies the data written for the QIC-80 format
|might be a little too dense for the QIC-40 tapes. One small backup
|I did compared okay, but I wonder how generally reliable QIC-40
|tapes are when they are formatted and written with a QIC-80 tape
|drive?
|
|Does anyone have comments on reliabilty of QIC-40 tapes formatted
|and written with a QIC-80 tape drive?
|

This is a private reply. Please do not post.

Russ,

Most of the later 3M DC-2000 cartridges used the same base media as
the DC-2080 and DC-2120, but were not tested to the higher densities
required for QIC-80 (14,700fpri).  Knowing this, we often used
DC-2000's for testing product since our cost was $2 for the DC-2000.

cheers,
twn