Hugh,

I have worked in data center environments most of my working life. I have
seen tapes thrown, dropped and used as hockey pucks during late shift
sporting activities.

I have never seen a restore fail due to an IO error.

Every recovery effort that I have seen fail has been due to the tape being
unavailable as it was not sent offsite, or because the data was not backed
up in the first place.

I am not saying that handling tapes with due respect is not important, but
given my own personal experiences tape is not as fragile as you might
believe.

Rather than spending your money on standards, have a look on EBay for a
tape drive, hook it up to your Mac and see what you can do with it.

Gerard

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance