DAT old black Magic ???

[Vipersan]

Got a curious project atm ..
Having recently aquired some old tech at a car boot sale ..
A DAT tape drive backup unit (external)
No Idea what make ..the logo looks like RU with the R reversed and joined to the U ..
The unit powers up ..and appears to work ..
..and came with a PCI scsi card which I have yet to try in ....well ...anything PC wise ..
No connecting lead ...but somewhere in my loft I do have a centronics 50 pin lead from an old printer ..
The same connector on both the scsi card ..and the DAT drive.
And ...bonus ..a box of used DAT DG-60M tapes ..
So ..curious as ever ...I wanna see it work..
lol
So before I attempt anything ..
Anyone familiar with this tech from yesteryear ?
Is the drive natively supported by any version of windoze ?...or will it require 3 party drivers and/or software ?
Any help and info would be appreciated ..as this is well out of my ball park.
lol
rgds
VS

 

[PaulR]

A couple of decades ago the firm I was with used DAT taps to back up data. The only thing I remember with certainty is that the drive was VERY fussy about the tapes and would frequently fail claiming that the tape was not worthy. Also, the tapes were available in different capacities and they were matched to the drive.

More trouble than they were worth.

 

[Vipersan]

A couple of decades ago the firm I was with used DAT taps to back up data. The only thing I remember with certainty is that the drive was VERY fussy about the tapes and would frequently fail claiming that the tape was not worthy. Also, the tapes were available in different capacities and they were matched to the drive.

More trouble than they were worth.

Well fwiw ..I'm assuming the tapes were used in this unit ...as they came with it ..?
So perhaps it could be 'useful' again ...but unsure what if any software is needed ...or indeed ..which OS is compatible ?

 

[pgh13]

Problem with DAT tapes now is that the capacities are much smaller than hard drives, these days. We used to use DAT-120 tapes which were 4GB native, 8GB with compression, so a DAT-60 would be half that. I think the UR symbol is a US certification, but was never sure what its origin was. There weren't many manufacturers of hardware so if you pop the top of the case you'll find a familiar name; HP, Sony etc.

I had a collection of SCSI controllers that we used way back with NT 3.5 and NT 4, but 3 years ago, although I'd previously used them with XP, I couldn't get any sense out of them on Win 2000, 2003 etc. We used to use Backup Exec, but I think this was just a fancy front end that made the native NT Backup and SQL Backup more user friendly. You used to be able to download a free 1 month eval version.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

What you have is a DDS drive - almost certainly a DDS1 which stored up to 1.3 GB (2.6 GB compressed) on the 60M(etre) tape.

I used one of these some 15 or more years ago for back-up - so that would have been under Win98 or ME. Mine was an HP and I can't be sure now but believe I got HP software with it. AFAIK the original drives were all SCSI and only went to USB much later (15 to 20 years) and higher capacities (up to 320 GB ). I still have it in a very old server along with a magneto optical disc dive somewhere in the attic but haven't used it for many years.

Digital Data Storage - Wikipedia

 

[davemurgtroyd]

Does the drive or tapes have a DDS logo on them perhaps with a number after it?

 

[Channel Hopper]

As always, pictures speak a few thousand words of gibberish.

 

[Vipersan]

Did as suggested to reveal the actual drive which is basically just sat on top of a psu ..in a case
Brand Sony model SDT-9000

so would look like this inside :-

Sony DDS Sdt-9000 BM DAT 12 24gb Tape Drive | eBay

https://www.sony.net/Products/storagesolution/documents/manual_pdf/3-860-829/3860829041.pdf

..according to pdf is DDS-3 ?

..and a small 6 pin socket at the rear of the actual drive ...possible audio out ?

Left my camera round at the shop ...
So ..tomorrow for pics ..
lol

 

[Vipersan]

So ..
It would appear these units can be reflashed to work with Audio ??
..so either/or not both.
and very much superior to conventional Audio Cassette tape ?
Audio adventures in SCSI DAT
Not sure I will persue this ..but at least I know this wasn't a wasted purchase .
lol

 

[Archive-8]

I might be getting confused here but you can get dat hi fi kit.

For example

 

[Vipersan]

Interesting :-

 

[Tururu]

Es una vieja unidad DAT-SCSI como indican los compañeros.
Muy utilizada por 1990 (digital equipment corporation), las que trabaje de 4GB, recordar que entonces un disco grande solo 2GB-SCSI.
Los pines/jumper son para configurar de 0 a 7 el numero asignado en el bus SCSI y tambien apara activar el terminador, muy bien comentado en la pagina 6 del manual que comentas, en este bus SCSI-1 podias tener hasta 7 dispositovos (discos, CD, DVD, Scaner).
Win95/Winme la utilizan, pero los backup generados luego no los reconocia, en XP sin problemas.
Con los driver de entonces tenias unas utilidades genericas de SCSI, entre ellas el backup, funcionando muy bien.

Mira la controladora que tienes, si es de Adaptec, podras descargar los driver, son con las que trabaje, en HP limitado al equipo que tengas, scaner ==>scaner, cinta ==>cinta.
Cuando los discos crecieron, se quedo pequeña.
No confundir un terminador SCSI de 50 pines con el conector paralelo de una impresora
---------------
It's an old DAT-SCSI drive as the peers point out.
Widely used by 1990 (digital equipment corporation), those working 4GB, remember that then a large 2GB-only SCSI disk.
The pins / jumper are used to configure the number assigned to the SCSI bus from 0 to 7 and also to activate the terminator. This SCSI-1 bus allows you to have up to 7 devices (disks , CD, DVD, Scaner).
Win95 / Winme use it, but the backups generated later did not recognize them, in XP without problems.
With the drivers of then you had a generous utilities of SCSI, among them the backup, working very well.

Look at the controller you have, if it is from Adaptec, you can download the drivers, they are the ones I work with, limited to the computer you have, scaner ==> scaner, tape ==> tape.
When the disks grew, it stayed small.
Do not confuse a 50-pin SCSI terminator with the parallel connector on a printer.

Caja externa para dispositovos SCSI (vale para todo por la salida de audio CD/DVD/HDD/Cinta/DAT)
External box for SCSI devices (good for everything by the audio output CD / DVD / HDD / Tape / DAT)

 

[davemurgtroyd]

So ..
It would appear these units can be reflashed to work with Audio ??
..so either/or not both.
and very much superior to conventional Audio Cassette tape ?
Audio adventures in SCSI DAT
Not sure I will persue this ..but at least I know this wasn't a wasted purchase .
lol

The firmware can be flashed to audio BUT apparently drive will still work on data. There are programmes that will extract the DAT tapes audio to .wav files but there is no direct audio output on the drives. So convert wav files to flac, mp3 or whatever.

 

[jeallen01]

VS

FWIW, the "logo looks like RU with the R reversed and joined to the U ." is the US Underwriters Laboratory (UL) Recognized Component safety mark - not a manufacturer's trade mark.

 

[Vipersan]

Some pics of the DAT unit..

 

[Tururu]

Una caja para unidades de 1/4 SCSI.
No olvides comentar o foto de la tarjeta SCSI para ver el fabricante.
No te vendieron ningun cable SCSI para conectar la caja a la controladora.?
En SCSI puedes tener desde el conector de 50pines que tiene la caja a una conexion similar al paralelo de 25, solo similar, es SCSI tambien.
Con los scanner HP 6100c tienen un cable de 25 por un lado y por el otro 50.
Permite conectar al controlador que dan para el PC o conectar a otro equipo/caja con conector SCSI de 50 pines normal.
---------------------------
One box for 1/4 SCSI drives.
Do not forget to comment or photo the SCSI card to see the manufacturer.
They did not sell you any SCSI cable to connect the box to the controller.
In SCSI you can have from the connector of 50pin that has the box to a connection similar to the parallel of 25, only similar, is SCSI also.
With the HP 6100c scanner you have a 25-pin cable on one side and the other 50 on the other.
Connects to the controller they give to the PC or connect to another computer/box with a normal 50-pin SCSI connector.

Scanner HP 6100c.

Backup de que? donde? con discos 3TB (90€/28dB.), 6TB (259€/28dB y 8TB (359€/29dB.).
Esta semana cambie los discos a 2 sintonizadores (VU+DUO2 y VU+Ultimo4K) de 3TB, con los nuevos (6TB/8TB.), uno hace de NAS en red.
--------
Backup of what? where? With 3TB (90€/28dB.), 6TB (259€/28dB and 8TB (359€/29dB.)
This week change the disks to 2 tuners (VU+DUO2 and VU+Ultimo4K) of 3TB, with the new ones (6TB/8TB.), one makes of NAS in network.

PD:El ruido es importante y mas la ventilacion/Noise is important and more ventilation.

 

[Vipersan]

The scsi card is currently at my shop so here is a photo I found online..
I think this is the model scsi host adapter SIDE-2930C

I'm trying to find drivers atm ..and hoping it will function under win 7 64 bit
otherwise I will have to build an earlier OS just to have it function..
??

..errr maybe ?
AdvanSys ISA SCSI Host Adapter - SIDE2930C.exe win98.exe driver for Windows 7/XP/8/8.1/10/Vista - Summary

 

[Tururu]

No comentas si tienes el cable para conectar/Do not comment if you have the cable to connect.

Aqui los driver, incluido Windows7 / Here the drivers, including Windows7
AdvanSys SIDE-2930C Driver Download for Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista

 

[Channel Hopper]

Some pics of the DAT unit..View attachment 106085

Looking at the rear panel reminds me of stuff I threw out a few years back since I couldn't think of a use for the size they took up (apart from door stops)

 

[Vipersan]

No comentas si tienes el cable para conectar/Do not comment if you have the cable to connect.

Aqui los driver, incluido Windows7 / Here the drivers, including Windows7
AdvanSys SIDE-2930C Driver Download for Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista

Cheers Tururu ...but I suspect that the host adapter card is fubarred ..
Tried in to 2 pci slots ..on 2 different PCs ...and The card is preventing either machine booting..
Probably the reason why it was at the boot sale..
?
This is possibly a good omen for the actual DAT unit..
Found another identical host adapter on fleabay for a few quid ..so ordered it.
Wont arrive till friday ..but cheap enough to experiment with.
..but will have to wait now.
doh!