John Lee stated some good points and you should keep them in mind.  I would try
configuring the device as an A3542A or an HPC1537A and then test the heck out
of it.  This includes backups, restores and SLTs.  This last one is the tricky
one.  If there are firmware differences between the drives, this is where it
will show up.  I have also heard about some newer versions of firmware in the
DDS not allowing the 3000 to boot up.  This is why I say that if you are on
contract and/or this is a production system, think twice about it.  If it is a
test system or not under contract, then this is an alternative that you may
want to explore.

BTW, I disagree with John on one point.   I do not believe that HP uses better
quality parts for DDS drives that go into an HP 3000 versus cheaper parts that
go in an NT Server.  The number of DDS drives that HP sells for the MPE systems
is infinitesimal compared to the number of drives they actually sell.  I draw
your attention to this URL: http://www.hp.com/tape/news15.html

It talks about a ceremony where HP shipped the one millionth DDS drives to SUN.
 They have made 8 million drives so far and SUN has bought one million of them.


Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com                             www.hicomp.com


-----Original Message-----
From:   Lane Rollins [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Friday, January 28, 2000 10:37 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: DDS-3 Drives

Okay so this brings us to the next question.... what are the differences
between say the A3542A and the C1554AI? Is it just what HP will "support" on
the 3k? It doesn't bother me to change drives... I just dropped our two DDS2
drives from support because they wanted $420 each a year. If you were to use
a the less expensive drive do you just tell the system it's the higher
priced unit, or another DAT drive?

-Lane


on 1/28/00 7:59 AM, John Painter at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Denys:
>
> You are quite right-- the A3542A, which is the "official" HP 3000
> internal add-on DDS3 drive, is very expensive compared to even HP DDS3
> drives sold for HP Netservers.
<snip>
> Denys Beauchemin wrote:
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> John wrote: That is incorrect. The A3542A 003 is a new field add-on DDS3
>> drive.
>> List is
>> $3670.00. There is also an A3542AR, which is a remarketed version. Lose your
>> HP
>> contacts and find a good Channel Partner... ;-)
>>
>> To which I respond:  "Wow those are high prices.!"
>> I went to www.dirtcheapdrives.com to have a look at some prices, here is
what
>> I
>> found.
>>
>> For internal devices:
>> An HP C1554AI DDS-3 drive for $769.
>> A DLT4000 for $1599.
>> An HP C5686A LVD/SCSI DDS-4 device for $1169
>> A DLT7000 for $3979
>> A DLT8000 for $4289
>> An HP C5648A DDS-3 6 cartridge autoloader for $1999
>>
>> I only listed HP and Quantum equipment  here. (Remember all DLTs are made by
>> Quantum.)