Storage product maker LaCie today announced the launch of a new line of Mac compatible FireWire-based tape storage systems. The first two products in the line sport AIT and DDS-3 support, respectively. LaCie said that either drive is suitable either for direct backup or for network-based backup, depending on the needs of the users.
LaCie said that the AIT+ FireWire drive features up to 70GB of storage capacity on an AIT+ tape — an 8mm tape that incorporates “Memory-In-Cassette,” a feature that promotes faster data retrieval speeds. The AIT+ drive also has a build-in head cleaner mechanism. The drive sports an MTBF (mean time between failure) rating of 250,000 hours.
The FireWire DDS-3 sports a compressed capacity of up to 24GB per cartridge, and writes data at 7.2GB/hr (2MB/s), according to LaCie. The drive also features automatic read-after-write verification to ensure integrity. The FireWire DDS-3 drive is backward compatible with DDS, DDS-DC and DDS-2 formats, making it easy to incorporate the drive into an archive system where the older formats are already used. LaCie also said the FireWire DDS-3 drive sports “one button disaster recovery,” which restores the target hard drive’s operating system, configuration, applications and data files to their most current state.
The FireWire DDS-3 sports an MTBF rating of 200,000 hours, features an internal head cleaner and also has “TapeAlert,” technology that automatically diagnoses tape problems.
Both drives are bundled with Retrospect backup software from Dantz, for PC and Macintosh. Retrospect presently supports limited OS X compatibility through a public beta of its Clients application — the company is expected to release a full Mac OS X-compatible version of Retrospect this fall.
The LaCie FireWire AIT+ drive carries a suggested retail price of US$1,549; cartridges are available at $74 each. The LaCie FireWire DDS-3 drive costs $899, and cartridges are available for $17. Look for the drives through LaCie’s resellers and mail-order partners.