September 17th, 1999

[10:40 AM] Reliable FireWire Backup Hits Market With FireWire DAT

The good people at MacTell have released a product that Blue & White and G4 owners will no doubt be glad to hear about. The company has announced the FirePower FireDrive DAT, a FireWire Digital Audio Tape drive. According to MacTell:

Mactell Corporation today announced that their new external FireWire tape backup drive, the FireDrive DAT, is shipping.

The FirePower FireDrive DAT is an external 4mm digital tape backup solution incorporating all the speed and versatility of IEEE 1394, or FireWire, technology. Fully hot swappable and extremely flexible, the FireDrive DAT will utilize a 6GB tape that costs less than $15.00, making it an extremely cost-effective storage and archiving solution.

The FireDrive DAT is bundled with the award-winning backup software, Retrospect 4.1, from Dantz Development as well as Desktape Pro 4.8, a desktop mounting utility, which allows the tape drive to be mounted to the desktop and used as a hard drive. Desktape Pro makes the FireDrive DAT a digital VCR and Jukebox by giving the user the ability to record, store, and play back up to 2 hours of MPEG-2 video, 3 hours of DVD encoded video, 2 hours of MPEG-1 video, or 100 hours of MP3 music tracks in real time from a single tape.

MacTell tells us that they re shipping the product now. The FireDrive DAT is priced at US$849, though it is expected to be priced at US$799 on the street. You can find more information on the drive at the company's web site.

The Mac Observer Spin: Another important FireWire product shipping! Tape backup is considered vital by many Mac users, especially in the business market, and this product helps fill that void.

MacTell