2 The Simple Approach to Improved Data Protection Migrating from the DDS format to an Exabyte VXA-2 Packet Tape drive is a simple and straightforward process.  With similar drive and media costs, a significant increase in speed and capacity, and the assurance of a long future of compatible upgrades, the VXA-2 Packet Tape technology is the ideal upgrade for DDS users. This guide presents answers to the eleven most commonly asked questions concerning migrating tape formats.  Best practices and straightforward advice on backup configuration and procedures further ensure that your new VXA-2 Packet Tape Drive provides a high level of data protection. 1.   How do the DDS and VXA-2 Packet Tape Drive specifications compare? After a fifteen-year lifespan, the original DDS tape technology has reached its last generation.   Sony abandoned the technology in 2001 due to its inherent limitations.  Contemporary storage demands have outstripped DDS capacities and speeds.  Predictably, the mechanical implications of a 2,770% capacity increase since DDS inception is generating increasing reports of degrading reliability. DDS tape technology was first introduced by Hewlett Packard and Sony in 1989, and has been upgraded five times.  In order to repeatedly increase capacity, mechanical tolerances have been dramatically reduced, increasing the cost of manufacturing each new drive, and decreasing the reliability in real-world conditions, with a particularly high susceptibility to dust contamination.   Unfortunately, most DDS users never realize a problem exists until they attempt to restore lost data. With four times the capacity of DDS-4 tapes, twice the data transfer rate, and several orders of magnitude higher reliability, the VXA-2 Packet Tape drive offers DDS users a significant upgrade in capacity, performance, and dependability. VXA Packet Tape technology represents a revolution in data recording and retrieval.  Prior to the introduction of VXA Packet technology, the fundamental architecture and format of tape drives had not changed in more than twenty years.  Rather than reading and writing data in a diagonal tracks spanning the width of the tape, the technique utilized by older tape technologies such as DDS, Exabyte’s VXA-2 Packet Tape Drive reads and writes small, individually addressed packets, similar to the method used to transmit data over the Internet.  VXA Packet Tape drives are 180 times more likely to recover data from damaged or misaligned tapes. The following table compares the VXA-2 Packet Tape Drive’s capacity and performance specifications to three generations of DDS tape specifications. DDS-3 DDS-4 DAT-72 Exabyte VXA-2 Native Capacity 12 GB 20 GB 36 GB 80 GB Transfer Rate 1.5 MB/second 3 MB/second 3.5 MB/second 6 MB/second p1   p2   p3   p4   p5   p6   p7   p8