Tape Backup in Windows 98 is better than expected.

I do have a DDS4 tape drive. I find it convenient to store rarely necesary large file sets on a tapes rather, than on multiple DVDs. In any case the Windows 98 backup tool (Seagate Backup Exec) is able to handle tapes in a quite a covenient way.

I tried the backup tool from Windows 2000, and:

- it does not allow to name tapes, as user see fit. (98 lets to set a tape name the way similar to a disk label).

- it is necesary to use every tape from a backup chain, when restoring a single backup job (98 lets to add backup after backup creating an endless chain of tapes. Only the tapes with needed backup job are necesary when restoring).

- it is not possible to see what backup jobs are on a tape without inserting the tapes preeceeding it. (98 shows all the backup jobs with a warning if the jobs are spanning to another tapes).

- the backups made on Windows 98 are restored withoul an error, but the file contents are messed up.

So, I can not force myself to move to Windows 2000 with the tape related operations. But, perhaps there is some software that will make the Windows 2000 work as convenient as the 98 does. Still it is hardly the reason to pay for Backup Exec for Windows 2000, when the one given by Microsoft with Windows 98 works quite well for free. (I had no opportunity to test the newer versions of the Backup Exec, so I do not know if they are as convenient as the old one).