DLT tapes compatibility 1

[vekara]

Hi,

Must say that I have get a lot of different kind of info regarding this issue. Now I would like to make sure how this really is...

Question is:
I have old HP DLT30 tape drive (Model C1549A) that doesn't read DLT IV tapes. Should it do so or just DLT III tapes?

Question is still not model specific: I would like to know that does older DLT drives support DLT IV tapes or do I have to find DLT IIIXT or older tapes?

Thanks for info, have a nice summer...

 

[gwichman]

Depends on how old the drive is and what the drive is compatable with. I'm not familiar with your drive nor am i going to do the legwork (google, HP) to figure it out. Generally speaking though, yes there are drives that are too old to read DLTIV tapes and can only read DLTIII in which case you'll need to buy the older generation of tapes. There are also drives (DLT8000) that can read both DLTIV and DLTIII tapes. Keep in mind that while read compatability may span more then one media format, write compatability is usually more narrow and specific. e.g. an SDLT drive can typically read DLTIV, but not write to them.