Internal units take up less desk space but you need to have a spare drive bay to install it. Some external units, such as parallel port units, also have the advantage of being portable. This allows more than one user to share the same tape drive. Before you purchase a particular system, pay close attention to the software, making certain that it has an intuitive graphical interface and detailed on-line help system to assist you as you become familiar with the product. Fundamentally, the product you want to purchase should be called a tape restore system rather than a tape backup system.
Tape backup emphasizes the wrong part of the process.
The only reason you copy files to tape is to enable users to recover them if they are lost. Ensure that the product can help users carry out single file, directory and full volume restores without having to reinstall the backup software or system operating environment. The industry is working to establish standards for the new QIC 3010 format and hopefully, those will be finalized very quickly. High-capacity tape backup products have not traditionally followed any standards with respect to tape format. Fortunately, there are several recent standards that have emerged in the SCSI-based tape industry.