very subjective. Anything at that price range doesn't exist in my region at all. Also consider if there will be a government auction next time your drive fails. I found just one offer for $500 now.
My personal "final straw" was also, that nothing that I was able to actually buy or afford (reasonably, so not $1000+) required me to have at least a full desktop to throw it in and often drivers were "windows only, but there should be something for linux somewhere". Simple usb makes it much smaller and easier.
Being out of your budget isn't the same thing as being hard to get.
As far as drivers are concerned, SCSI tape devices have been in the Just Works(tm) category on just about every UNIX-like platform (including Linux) for the last 40 years.
Everyone's needs are different. Use what works for you.
very subjective. Anything at that price range doesn't exist in my region at all. Also consider if there will be a government auction next time your drive fails. I found just one offer for $500 now.
My personal "final straw" was also, that nothing that I was able to actually buy or afford (reasonably, so not $1000+) required me to have at least a full desktop to throw it in and often drivers were "windows only, but there should be something for linux somewhere". Simple usb makes it much smaller and easier.