THE INSIDE STORY
CASSETTE
DATs were develope
d for audio recording. DAT tapes are 4 mm wide and can pack data more densely than many types of computer media.
CAPSTAN AND MOTOR
A capstan is a vertical rotating shaft that drives tape at a constant speed. The capstan and the drive belt control tape speed and avoid speed variations caused by overrunning and underrunning, the biggest factor in a tape's demise.
HEAD CLEANER
DAT drives include an internal head cleaner, but you should use a cleaning cartridge regularly as well. Intelligent backup software will tell you when it's time to clean the heads.
LOADING GEARS
Gears on both sides of tape drives both pull in and eject the tapes.
ID JUMPERS
You may need to set the ID jumpers to comply with your tape drive's SCSI ID address.
DRUM ASSEMBLY
In helical-scan systems (DATs and 8-mm drives), the rotating heads are mounted on the drum. When in use, two arms
pull the tape out of the cartridge and wrap it partway around the drum.
SCSI INTERFACE
All the tape drives in this review support SCSI-2. Some of them include LEDs to show proper SCSI termination.
RF BOARD
The RF board picks up the RF signal that's stored on the tape recording and converts it to digital signals.
