Tape drives removed from native backup tool

Hello, I cannot seem to find anything that indicates that Vista supports the
use of tape drives for doing backups. Tape drives have longer media life and
are very reliable. The current backup strategies do not allow customers to
keep offsite backups. Tapes are the way to go for offsiting. Do you expect
customers to buy a bunch of hard drives or use some 55 DVD's to do a 400 GB
backup. Are there any plans to support tape drives with the native backup
tool?

Hi,

There are no plans that I am aware of to reintroduce tape drives to the
backup utility. To use one you will need to rely on a third party backup
product. The main focus of the included utility is to backup to alternate
drive or network drive.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"WhatHappenedToTapeDrives"
<WhatHappenedToTapeDrives@discussions.microsoft.co m> wrote in message
news:E09AC87C-83C5-4568-A88B-B89B32A2ABBC@microsoft.com...
> Hello, I cannot seem to find anything that indicates that Vista supports
> the
> use of tape drives for doing backups. Tape drives have longer media life
> and
> are very reliable. The current backup strategies do not allow customers
> to
> keep offsite backups. Tapes are the way to go for offsiting. Do you
> expect
> customers to buy a bunch of hard drives or use some 55 DVD's to do a 400
> GB
> backup. Are there any plans to support tape drives with the native backup
> tool?

Thanks for the reply. I think this is an injustice to customers already
using tape drives with prior Microsoft operating systems. Now we have to go
and buy a third party tool plus the upgrade to Vista. I don't think I will
waste the money and will stick with XP.
I think this information should go into the online help so that customers
wanting to use tape drives know right away that they are no longer supported.
Taking it away is one thing and then not stating it so in the help and the
documentation is another. This is unprofessional and confusing. Usually
when an upgrade gets released one would expect additional and enhanced
functionality. In the case of Vista it will be a downgrade for those of us
that used tape drives.


"Rick Rogers" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> There are no plans that I am aware of to reintroduce tape drives to the
> backup utility. To use one you will need to rely on a third party backup
> product. The main focus of the included utility is to backup to alternate
> drive or network drive.
>
> --
> Best of Luck,
>
> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>
> "WhatHappenedToTapeDrives"
> <WhatHappenedToTapeDrives@discussions.microsoft.co m> wrote in message
> news:E09AC87C-83C5-4568-A88B-B89B32A2ABBC@microsoft.com...
> > Hello, I cannot seem to find anything that indicates that Vista supports
> > the
> > use of tape drives for doing backups. Tape drives have longer media life
> > and
> > are very reliable. The current backup strategies do not allow customers
> > to
> > keep offsite backups. Tapes are the way to go for offsiting. Do you
> > expect
> > customers to buy a bunch of hard drives or use some 55 DVD's to do a 400
> > GB
> > backup. Are there any plans to support tape drives with the native backup
> > tool?
>
>

> I think this information should go into the online help so that customers
> wanting to use tape drives know right away that they are no longer supported.
> Taking it away is one thing and then not stating it so in the help and the
> documentation is another. This is unprofessional and confusing. Usually
> when an upgrade gets released one would expect additional and enhanced
> functionality. In the case of Vista it will be a downgrade for those of us
> that used tape drives.


I agree. I guess MS decided that tape is too old a technology to support
or the makers of other backup software threatened to make life too
difficult for MS.

Tom Lake

I have been reading through a lot of the responses and everybody seems to say
the same things about tape drives. That they are slow or that they are an
old technology. I totally disagree with this. Tape technology is reliable
and proven. Usualy the only thing that fails is the user because they might
not have tested their disaster recovery plan until something actually fails
and then blame the tape drive if there are problems. I don't think that the
rest us tape drive users should be forgotten because of these beliefs and
misconceptions. Some of the new tape drives are quick. For instance my LT02
tape drive can transfer up to 40MB a second and the LT03 can handle up to 80
MB a second. I realize that these probably won't compete with a SCSI HD or
SATA but it's nothing to laugh about. It's a lot faster then DVD writing and
USB drives. I just hope that Microsoft takes the above into consideration.
I wonder what other functionality Vista will remove. It would be nice to have
a list of features that will no longer will be present.

"Tom Lake" wrote:

> > I think this information should go into the online help so that customers
> > wanting to use tape drives know right away that they are no longer supported.
> > Taking it away is one thing and then not stating it so in the help and the
> > documentation is another. This is unprofessional and confusing. Usually
> > when an upgrade gets released one would expect additional and enhanced
> > functionality. In the case of Vista it will be a downgrade for those of us
> > that used tape drives.
>
>
> I agree. I guess MS decided that tape is too old a technology to support
> or the makers of other backup software threatened to make life too
> difficult for MS.
>
> Tom Lake

Here's what MS said about there design decisions

http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/pag...vista-faq.aspx


"WhatHappenedToTapeDrives"
<WhatHappenedToTapeDrives@discussions.microsoft.co m> wrote in message
news:B1B66F61-01E8-443A-BD24-9AC7D4A72647@microsoft.com...
>I have been reading through a lot of the responses and everybody seems to
>say
> the same things about tape drives. That they are slow or that they are an
> old technology. I totally disagree with this. Tape technology is reliable
> and proven. Usualy the only thing that fails is the user because they
> might
> not have tested their disaster recovery plan until something actually
> fails
> and then blame the tape drive if there are problems. I don't think that
> the
> rest us tape drive users should be forgotten because of these beliefs and
> misconceptions. Some of the new tape drives are quick. For instance my
> LT02
> tape drive can transfer up to 40MB a second and the LT03 can handle up to
> 80
> MB a second. I realize that these probably won't compete with a SCSI HD or
> SATA but it's nothing to laugh about. It's a lot faster then DVD writing
> and
> USB drives. I just hope that Microsoft takes the above into
> consideration.
> I wonder what other functionality Vista will remove. It would be nice to
> have
> a list of features that will no longer will be present.
>
> "Tom Lake" wrote:
>
>> > I think this information should go into the online help so that
>> > customers
>> > wanting to use tape drives know right away that they are no longer
>> > supported.
>> > Taking it away is one thing and then not stating it so in the help and
>> > the
>> > documentation is another. This is unprofessional and confusing.
>> > Usually
>> > when an upgrade gets released one would expect additional and enhanced
>> > functionality. In the case of Vista it will be a downgrade for those of
>> > us
>> > that used tape drives.
>>
>>
>> I agree. I guess MS decided that tape is too old a technology to support
>> or the makers of other backup software threatened to make life too
>> difficult for MS.
>>
>> Tom Lake