Isaac Blake and Steve Dirickson both suggest a drive with hardware
data compression.
 
Keep in mind:  you might not be restoring the data via the same drive.
 
Make sure your backup machines have the same data compression hardware.
 
Make sure future drives you purchase will have the same data compression
hardware.
 
Be prepared to spend extra time/effort/tapes when sending tapes to friends,
vendors, HP, etc., who don't have the same data compression hardware and
you'd *swear* you created a non-compressed tape but ...  (from many years
of experience!).
 
Stan Sieler                                          [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html