Re: does anybody use GStape?

[edward@pro-ren.cts.com (Edward Floden)]

In <1994Jan9.035647.6677@coplex.com>
dcrutch@coplex.coplex.com (Dan Crutcher) writes:

>If anyone knows of other tape-backup software for the GS, please let us 
>know about it.

There's at least one other Apple II tape backup system, but you'll probably
have a difficult time finding one. It's the Sider T6, a Teac drive, which uses
a proprietary Sider interface card. The software, included with the T6, is a
slightly modified version of Glen Bredon's _Cat_Doctor_, renamed to
_Siderfile_. 

I don't know if Omnishore Electronics (the current owners of the Sider line)
still manufacture the T6, though. The last time that I saw one for sale was in
1988, and the price then was $800. (No whining about overpriced Apple II
hardware, please. :)

I have a T6, and I've found it useful. The tapes only hold a maximum of 40MB
each, so multiple partition backups to a single tape aren't always possible.
But it does do the job: the backup of a 32MB partition will take approximately
30 minutes.

Sider also made a combination hard drive/tape backup unit, called the C96.
(I've got one of these, too. A mere coincidence...) The C96 contains both a T6
tape unit and a Sider D96 hard drive in the same case, which is the same size
as the older Sider D2 cases. The backup software for the C96 is also a
copy of Siderfile, but with the added capability of verifying the backup after
it's completed; the T6 version of Siderfile can't do a tape verification.