[rescue] OT: Exabyte tape drive question

[Dave McGuire]

On November 12, Mike Katchabaw wrote:
> I recently got a hold of an Exabyte 8505XL tape drive.  This, of
> course, is an internal drive, but I don't have any free bays.  So, I
> was able to find, at a really good price, some external SCSI cases
> that were originally designed for the Toshiba XM6201 CDROM drive.
> Unfortunately, I noticed afterwards that none of the cases had fans in
> them, nor were there any free connectors or mounting holes for a fan
> (so I guess the case or the original CDROM was designed to not need
> them in the first place).
> 
> My concern though is that, during a long backup, the tape drive will
> overheat and cause problems without a fan.  There are ventilation holes
> in the case, but I'm not sure if that's enough.  I have run some short
> tests that last a few minutes, and everything works fine.  I'm afraid
> of trying anything longer for fears of some kind of heat problem.
> From what I have heard, Exabyte drives run fairly cool compared to
> most tape drives, and won't generate any heat when sitting idle.
> Nevertheless, I am still a little worried about it.
> 
> Will the drive overheat without a fan?  If that could be a problem,
> what could I use the case for?  Would a CD writer or DVDROM drive
> be fine in such a beast without a fan?  (I have a CD writer in
> an old Sun case that has a fan, so I could swap if I need to.)

  Hi Mike.  EXB-8505XL don't produce that much heat...likely more than
the Toshiba CDROM drive you mentioned above, but still not all that
much.  I would go ahead and use the case that you have, but make sure
the ventilation holes aren't blocked in your installation...either on
the inside or the outside.

       -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL