Sony TSL-A500C/SA500C

Although there were no significant differences, the drives delivered the best performance under NT 4 and ARCServe 2000. Securing a 4Gb array of files returned an average transfer rate of 436Mbytes/min while a full tape to disk verification dropped marginally to 410Mbytes/min. Read operations proved to be a disappointment, as restoring 1.5Gb of data levelled out at only 159Mbytes/min. Operating under Windows 2000 Server ARCServe's backup and verification rates drop back to 374Mbytes/min although restore speeds leapt up to 222Mbytes/min. Load speeds for the autoloader mechanism were unimpressive, as running a full slot inventory took almost eight minutes.

The impending release of the new LTO-based tape drives could prove to be a big threat to the AIT-2 format as they're expected to offer far higher transfer rates and greater storage capacity. DLT (digital linear tape) is also a strong competitor and has a very large and very faithful installed base of users. Even so, companies that are looking to invest in a backup technology that offers high transfer rates and plenty of storage for a reasonable price would do well to check out these autoloaders.

Author: Dave Mitchell