« Return to: Small Office: Big Backups
| Product | Price with one cartridge (5/28/99) | Cartridge price1 (5/28/99) | Cartridge type | GB per cartridge: compressed/ uncompressed2 | Interface | Software | Warranty | Comments |
 HP Colorado 14GB IDE800/826-4111 www.hp.com/go/tape | $355 | $52 | Travan 14GB | 14/7 | IDE | HP Colorado Backup II | 2 years | Capacity and price are right for most home offices. Drive is quick and comes with very good software. |
| HP Colorado 14GB Parallel 800/826-4111 www.hp.com/go/tape | $378 | $52 | Travan 14GB | 14/7 | Parallel port | HP Colorado Backup II | 2 years | Like its Best Buy sibling, it has A-OK capacity, price, and software--but this portable is really too slow for the biggest backups. |
| HP SureStore T20i SCSI 800/826-4111 www.hp.com/go/tape | $519 | $60 | Travan 20GB | 20/10 | SCSI | HP Colorado Backup II | 2 years | Has the capacity to match higher-end PCs and small servers. Very fast, but expensive and requires a SCSI adapter. |
| OnStream DI30 IDE 800/759-4621 www.onstream.com | $2993 | $40 | ADR30 | 30/15 | IDE | Echo | 1 year | Newcomer costs little for its very high capacity--but it's slower than any other IDE product reviewed and has short warranty. |
| OnStream SC30 SCSI 800/759-4621 www.onstream.com | $4993 | $40 | ADR30 | 30/15 | SCSI | Echo | 2 years | Fairly pricey newcomer has loads of capacity, but needs a SCSI adapter and--unlike other SCSI drives--is only a so-so performer. |
| Seagate TapeStor NS 20GB IDE 800/626-6637 www.seagate.com/tape | $377 | $52 | Travan 20GB | 20/10 | IDE | Seagate Backup Exec | 2 years | Unit is priced well for small- and home-office users who need extra capacity in a very fast drive. |
| Seagate TapeStor NS SCSI 800/626-6637 www.seagate.com/tape | $559 | $52 | Travan 20GB | 20/10 | SCSI | Seagate Backup Exec | 2 years | High-priced model has the right capacity for PC workstations and small servers. It�s very fast but requires a SCSI adapter. |
| Tecmar NS20 with Nsync IDE 800/422-2587 www.tecmar.com | $695 | $47 4 | Travan 20GB | 20/10 | IDE | Seagate Backup Exec | 3 years | Classy model is our top performer, but it�s the most expensive drive here. Worth the extra cost as a small-server backup drive. |
PC World Online Best Buy
1 Price of media from vendor. Compatible media can often be found for less on the street.
2 Estimated capacity for compressed data; actual capacity varies with type of data.
3 Price without cartridge.
4 Price of one cartridge in a five-pack.