In response to a request for more info on DDS3 drive capacity and
timings:-

Here is a test I didn't perform - low software compression with drive
compression. I include two benchmarks, because the capacity changed
dramatically since my first post, and is now closer to 8.2 GB

In both cases a 125 DDS3 cartridge was used (the same one, in fact), and
8.22 GB backed up.
Incidentally, the box and each tape is marked 12GB before compression.
There is definitely more to these DDS3 cartridges than just an extra 5
meters. If anyone would like to elaborate it would be useful. Also, I
don't understand why there are two products (drives) available - one for
NT servers and one for HP3000's - the price differential is 4 times! (At
least here in South Africa).


Device = 7, Compression=enable, Eject=Nochange, Load=Nochange
STORE  @[log in to unmask]@;*t;DIRECTORY;STATISTICS;PROGRESS
MEDIA  1      5:06 PM            6:11 PM           2044 K/S         0
TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: 1 hours, 5 minutes, 34 seconds

Device = 7, Compression=enable, Eject=Nochange, Load=Nochange
STORE  @[log in to unmask]@;*t;DIRECTORY;STATISTICS;PROGRESS;COMPRESS=LOW
MEDIA  1      6:25 PM            7:37 PM           1152 K/S         0
TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: 1 hours, 12 minutes, 47 seconds

So, it seems that hardware compression is teh way to go (everything else
just seems slower), and it looks like you will get 8GB per hour per
drive.

This is not quite twice as fast as a DDS2 drive, but about 1.7 times.

I wonder how this compares to DLT.

Regards

Neil Harvey