Gateway offers cheaper tape storage

Gateway on Wednesday unveiled three new tape drive systems for backing up or storing data. The company's Gateway 810 autoloader mounts inside a server rack. It can hold up to 864GB of data, by incorporating one or two autoloaders, devices which rotate through up to six tapes, each capable of storing 80GB of compressed data using the DAT72 format. The 810 system starts at $2,499 with a single autoloader.

The company also launched a single, internal tape drive for backing up data in its 900-series servers and a six-tape autoloader for its 960x and 980 servers. The single-tape drive costs $899; the autoloader costs $1,499. The three storage systems are the latest products in Gateway's line of products for businesses. They offer a less-expensive alternative to two higher capacity storage systems launched by the company in August.