Configuring Windows 9X/2000/XP to Support a Tape Drive
Windows 9X/2000/XP does not support any tape drives in the usual sense, although it may or may not recognize and display the name of an installed tape drive, depending on the drive and the version of Windows. Unlike most other devices, for which drivers are readily available and can be installed using the Add New Hardware Wizard, tape drives running under Windows depend on device support built into the backup application itself. This is why, for example, the Windows 98 Microsoft Backup applet—an OEM version of Veritas Backup Exec—can use some tape drives and not others: the program itself contains drivers for the supported tape drives. All this really means is that you can’t use unsupported drives with the built-in backup applet. That’s not usually a problem because most tape drives are bundled with backup software considerably superior to the Windows Backup applet.
Tip
Windows support for tape drives is analogous to Windows support for CD writers and DVD writers. Windows recognizes that the drive is present, but has no idea how to exploit its capabilities. Just as with CD/DVD writers, that functionality must be built into application software designed to support the drive, whether that application is supplied by a third party or comes as a Windows applet (as does the Windows Backup application or the limited CD burning application bundled with Windows XP). The backup software bundled with your tape drive will support it. If ...