Recommendation on Tape Drive - SDLT vs Ultrium

[gmail2]

Because of the increasing amount of data that we store, we're considering replacing the tape drive in one of our servers. We have app 230 GB worth of data to backup on this server, and the files are already compressed, so I need a device that can support backing up 230 GB of data uncompressed escentially. Backup time is not really an issue, so long as it doesn't take more than 6 hours. I'm considering either the HP SDLT 3000/6000, or he Ultrium 920 - both of wich would meet my needs. Can anybody recommend one over the other? Traditionally we've always had SDLT drives, but I beleive that LTO is newer technology, is that correct?

Also, in the spec for both on the HP website, it says that they are "5.25 inch half height" - what does half height mean? I have seen Ultrium 960 drives before, and they seemed roughly the same height as the SDLT 320's we currently have.

One other question - I've been looking up WORM recently, and from what I can see it basically refers to writing data to a tape once but reading it many times. I don't quiet understand this thought, can't any tape drive do this?

Thanks in advance

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[SteelBurner]

I've just recenty bought a new drive to back up our servers. It is a Quantum SDLT 600 that comes with DLTSage WORM so I can use standard media for traditional backup and WORM tapes for achiving purpose. WORM means Write Once, Read Many. AFAIK this is the first and only drive that uses both techniques.

The drive can back up 300GB native or 600GB compressed at a compressed transfer rate of 72MB/sec. which is good enough for our environment.

Half Height means the drive has the same height as a CD-ROM drive (it uses one standard front drive slot), this is about 1.7 inch or 43.1 mm. Full Height drives use two slots = 3.3 inch or 84.8 mm height. The Quantum SDLT 600 is a full height drive.

HTH,
SteelBurner