LGR Oddware - Danmere Backer VHS Hard Drive Backup System

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The Danmere Backer: A Bizarre PC Hard Disk Tape Backup System

Welcome to another episode of LGR Oddware, where we're taking a look at hardware and software that's odd, forgotten, and obsolete. Today, we're going to explore the Danmere Backer, a PC hard disk tape backup system that uses VHS video tapes.

Although backing up computer data to tape is not uncommon, using VHS video tapes for this purpose is certainly unusual. Retro computers did use cassette tapes for games and programs, and even data cartridge tapes for backup solutions, but VHS? That's a new one.

The Danmere Backer was sold by Danmere Limited of England in 1996 for $60 US. This model is also known as the Backer16 hard disk tape backup system. It uses monochrome composite video signals only, either in PAL or NTSC format, with no audio. According to the box, it can store up to 1½ gigs of data.

However, further research reveals that this number is actually quite flexible, ranging from 750 megs to 3 gigabytes, depending on settings, compression options, and the type of tape used. This means that users had a lot of flexibility when choosing their backup method.

As it turns out, updated models of the Danmere Backer were available throughout the late 1990s, including an external version that connected via parallel port and could store up to 4 gigabytes. The card version, known as the Backer32, offered similar capabilities.

It's worth noting that while this system might seem unusual today, it highlights the creative solutions people came up with when working with technology in its infancy. And who knows? Maybe one day we'll see a revival of VHS-based backup systems – Stranger things have happened!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enGreetings, and welcome toanother episode of LGR Oddware,where we're taking a look at hardwareand software that is odd, forgotten, and obsolete,and today, it is the Danmere Backer:The PC hard disk tape backup system.Yeah, that's right, you can back upyour data to VHS video tapeby use of this ISA cardthat works on 386 and up PCsof the time period. Seriously.Although backing up computer data to tape is notthe most *unusual* thing in the computing world.Uh, retro computers had cassete tapes thatthey backed up to or read games and programs from,and then you still have data cartridge tapes thatare used for backup solutions and store tons of tons of data.But backing up to VHS, now *that* is a new one on me.So let's see what we got here.Time to get up close and personal with the Danmere Backer,with this model also being known asthe Backer16 hard disk tape backup system.It was sold right around the start of 1996by Danmere Limited of England for $60 US.And this uses monochrome composite video signals *only*to do its thing either in PAL or NTSC format.Yeah, there's no audio here whatsoever.It only uses the video signal.According to the box, it can store up 1½ gigs,but from what I've read, it actually rangesfrom 750 megs to 3 gigabytes,depending on your settings, compression options,and what kind of tape that you use.Updated models were available through the late 1990s,including one that was a little sleeker-looking.This was an external that connected viaparallel and did much the same thing,but could store up to 4 gigabytes, same asthe later card version, the Backer32.Now you might be wondering, \"Who was this made for?\"Well... anyone on a budget, really.The Backer's big appeal was price and convenience.Since a VHS tape was around $2 at the time,a lot less than the $15 or $30 a tape cartridgeof a similar capacity might cost.And of course, you just used your VCR insteadof shelling out for anything more specialized.It also boasted a 9 megabyteper minute transfer speed,or around a 150k per second,similar to other VHS backup systems of the time.And yeah, that means that the Backer was notthe only VHS backup system for home computers.There was the aptly-namedVideo Backup System for the Commodore Amiga,and perhaps most notably was the ArVid 1000 series,which was more similar to the Backer,being that these were ISA cards for the PC.And they were made in Zelenograd, Russiain 1992 through the mid '90s.And get this: There was even a group called Transcomthat distributed shady software compilations on VHS,which kind of blows my mind.However, even with a few points in their favor,Danmere's Backup system never really caught on,and as such, it's incredibly hard to find one now.But the company stuck around for a whileafter giving up on VHS backup systems,reorganizing to become 4TV Limited in the year 2000,and working on things like TV set-top box softwareuntil the company finally dissolved in 2014.Alright, let's get to opening this box finallyand see what we get inside.Because I actually purchased this asa new in boxed product although it was opened, so...Hopefully, it's still all intact.Let's see here...We have some floppy disks, that's always nice.Oh, this one's for 95, this is for Windows 3.1, so uh...That's good, that makes sense.So yeah, there's the card itself, the original ISA model.That is a *ton* of switch commands therefor these uh, little jumpers.Mmm, product license.\"This agreement is governed by English law.It does not affect your statutory rights.\"Well, that's... good.Ehh, get a registration form here.Envelope you have to stamp there. Yeah, Cheshire, England.I'm sure my English viewers have a sense of pride.Ah, apparently, this is...version 1.21 uh, either of the unit or the manual.Let's see here... \"Thank you for purchasing this product.\"Uh, you're welcome...21 years ago.Yeah, I mean, it's pretty much just kind of plug it in,and install the software that appears,although,that IO address guide is uh, rather intimidating.Oh yeah, and there's some stuffI was wondering about too, like long play.Looks like it says...uh, doubles your storage capacity, but in practice, the-\"this facility degrades the qualityof the recorded signal,\" which makes sense.There's some information on the different uh,video interfaces, impedance, performance, t- things like that.So uh, that's- that's cool.Extended options, mmm!Uses DMA channel 1 or 3.Ohhhh, that's gonna be fun, yeah.Yeah...Now this is the stuff I'm kinda worried about,just curious if it's gonna work.It uses \"DMA channel 1 for data transfer.If another expansion card uses this channel,you must change the DMA ... setting of that card.\"But, that can be switched, either onthe sound card itself or through software usually.*Scoffs* USUALLY, I say, well...Let's just get this thing installed.Mmm... that seal.Not broken in over 20 years.Aw yeah, that is a fresh card.Not a whole lot going on here, which...I mean,that kind of makes sense, I'm assumingthe software is doing a lot of the work.and uh, well, I'm already fingerprinting that up. Sorry.These are the two video in and outs and these go to the...uh, opposing ones on your VCR.Well, let's hook this up. I am insanely curiousto see how this thing works.So, I am going to install the card into my Windows 98...capture box here, which is whatI do a whole lotta work on LGR on.It's just tossed together whatever I need atthe moment and today... it needs a Danmere Backer.So you can't really see it too well, butthere is one single ISA slot in the bottom there,*Chuckle*that I'm gonna try to put this into.I've never actually insert anything intothis because it runs Windows 98 and uh...*Click*There we go. And I'm not gonna botherscrewing it in because screw that!A rather important part of this is getting a VCR that is *good*and I'm going to go with uh, this right here,one of my favorite VCRs, a Panasonic PV40760.It's just one of my favorite VCRs, both forthe way looks and functionality and whatnot.And that fact that it hasthis ginormous, wonderful remote. *Chuckles*It's great!There we go.And...this display is magnificent, and sois this one. I love VU meters like that.Like seriously, just check this out.*VHS Insertion Sounds*Isn't that delightful?So, I figured that might come in handy for um,absolutely nothing in this case, since it uses completevideo signals and no audio at all, butit makes me happy that they're there.I'll grab a couple of uh,brand new VHS tapes here from Goodwill.These are Maxells, uh, a 6 hour one and an 8 hour one.I think I'm gonna go with the 6 because typically,I have better results with video quality with like lower...uh, capacity type of tapes, so I'mma go with this one.And if we need to, I have anotherera-appropriate thing that also picked up at Goodwill(Like everything I have is from Goodwill).*Chuckles* Uh, but anyway...This Recoton Video VHS Head Cleaner,a non-abrasive wet system.Although curiously, I also noticed that uhBest Buy still carries VCR video head cleaners,which is pretty great! So if that doesn't work,this one should. 'Cause I literately bought it yesterday.Brand new. What the heck, Best Buy?So around the back of the VCR hereis where the business is gonna happen.And it says to use the highestquality composite cables you can get.Uh, these are the highest quality onesI have uh, from Acoustic Research.So, one goes into the video inand one goes into the video out.So I'm gonna stick the uh,blue one here to video out,and then the red one to video in.It's a tight fit because these cables are ridiculous...So yeah.So the sound card that's installedin here right now is an Aureal Vortex 2and I believe it does use the DMA that this needs, soI might need to disable that address first, or you know, swap itto get it to work, I- I dunno.Let's see if this works. We should just need to put...*Click*Oof, wow...There we go.And then...Yeah.That should be it!So I guess first up is to see whetheror not this is gonna work with... anything.*Click*Let us run setup.It's a delightfully '90s background.Yes, let us install now.And I'm glad the disk works because I did not want totry to track down these drivers and software on its own.Ehhhhhhh, looks fine to me.Alright, let's see what we got here.We got some uh, some stuff.Not installed, requires...installation. Well, I mean...Let's see what we got here, is it even detecting the card...I'm betting it's not even showing up herebecause of the sound card, so let's check that.Typically, I just go into the BIOS and start swappingthings around or whatever, but I just removed the sound card'cause I don't need it for this, so...While I'm waiting on this to reload, I'm gonna go aheadand get this new tape into the VCR.*Tape Unwrapping Noises*Mmm!*Inhales* Mmm, smells fresh.*Clack**Clattering Noises*Nice.*Thud*'Mkay, here we are with no sound card.Let's see what we - It's still not showing up!So I've manually made it look for one of these, um...I dunno about that.Is it? I- You know, okay, fine, if that worked, awesome!\"Backer is a high performance backup-upsys-\" \"Backup-up system?\" It really says that?\"Use the video health check menu toverify your system's properly configured.\"We'll definitely do that, 'causeI still have my doubts since I just like manuallychose this thing.Um, okay, let's see here... Video Health Check.Failed DMA Transfer.That's what I thought.Okay, well after some troubleshooting, I figured outwhat was goin' on, so let's run that Health Check once again.And uh, we should get an OK with DMA and yes we do!Seems to be all good.So what was happening was it wasn't justgonna be conflicting with DMA 1 of the soundcard,but also DMA 3 of the parallel port ECP mode, so uh, yeah.I just ended up switching some things around andeventually got it to work, so let's give this thing a shot,finally, although I'm not entirely sure how.*Chuckles* Let's check the options here.Why- I- I don't really know, I'm just gonna leave this as it is.Of course, we want NTSC and uh... yeah, this is all fine.I'm just gonna leave it as defaultand let's see if we can backup...Hm... let's start with somethinglike small first, like, let's see...Crystal Caves.Yeah.Approximately 38 seconds to do that, interesting.Well, let's see if this works.\"When ready, put the videoin record mode and click Start.\"Starting the recording right here...and let it go for a couple of secondsto get past that lead-in bit.There we go.Pressing start... now.Okay, so it is writing the tape header.*Chuckles*Oh, this is so weird, so it's processingfile by file now, we'll see...\"Writing tape footer...\" Okay.\"Stop the video recorder,\" uh, yeah, cool.Alright, so it looks like it has made this \"backered up\".SLG file to let me know what is in theory*Chuckles*on this VHS tape.So we have the options torestore files from videotape or verify.\"Press 'Play' when ready.\"Awesome, and there we go.*Clap & Hands Rubbing*Let's see what we get!Alright, got the buffer going...Playing, presumably...Come on... Find something...That error rate thingy lit up,I dunno what that means.Eh, it's not doing anything at all, um...That sucks.Yeah, that did suck, so I started the troubleshooting process,starting with using that Head Cleaner tape,which made me feel better but actually did absolutelynothing for the process of backing up with the backer.So I tried other cables, I tried another tape, I switchedaround the settings in the software, I tried compression,I tried different data clump sizesand speeds and redundancies,switched around the card slots and DMA settingsand just everything, nothing changed.So, I whipped out my trusty Woodgrain 486and installed it in there, thinking that, I dunno,maybe something was just weird withthat computer I was trying it in.And it turns out that it worked just fine in Windows 3.1and the software drivers that it came with.I had to actually install 3.1 on here just temporarilyto get it running, but y'know, here we go.This is what happens when the Backer is doingwhat it needs to do correctly and it's pretty fantastic.As you can see,it found all the files andbacked them up exactly as they should be.And that was at the default settings, so I crankedeverything up to the max to try to get that full9 megabyte per second claimed speed,and I just backed up the entire drive,which was around 80 megs or something.And save for one library file in the Windows folder,it got everything backed up perfectly,which is pretty surprising, I gotta say.And then finally, I just had to see whatthis looks like when you hook it up to a TV,and this is what you'll see.Again, there's no audio here, it is justa composite monochrome video signal.This has been the data that you've been seeing hereand then the header and footer look like this:And yeah, as much as it thoroughly amuses methat I can back up a computer hard diskto a VHS video tape of all things,I can see why the Danmere Backup system wasn't exactlya rousing success in the time period that it was released.I mean, this thing was being sold into the late '90s,and competing against things like Zip disks, uh,continually cheaper CD-R and CD-RW solutions,and then higher capacity and really cheapat the time uh, hard disk solutions, I mean...There was a storage boom happeningin the late '90s, and VHS video tape,I imagine, it wasn't really in a lotof peoples' radar for computer backup solutions.And then, there's also just the reliability factor, like*Chuckles* this is analog/composite signal, eh,And to get that capacity that it claims that you can get,you need to put it in SLP, which is lower quality and then...you start running into those problems like I saw, like afterone backup, we're already missing a file or two and...sure, it's just a file or two, but you don't want tomiss anything when you're backing stuff up.Speaking of working, why wouldn't you just be ableto maybe use something else other than VHS?Doesn't have to be VHS, just anything withvideo signal, right, that's analog, and well yeah.I mean, I'm just assuming you could use like Betamax orMiniDV or, the heck, maybe even 8 millimeter, I dunno.It- just anything that could possibly...\"see\" from a video signal,it should be able to back up to.Uh...I haven't any of those other things to try though,so I can't do that for this video, sorry.Um, it did say though, that you couldlike get two of these Backer systems,connect them, like one computer and then the other,and then back up directly between the computerswith no tape or anything in between,so that does lead me to believe that really,as long as it sees that video signal, that's fine.Um, so yeah, that's interesting, but...*Chuckles*Whatever, I'm just rambling at this point andI hope you enjoyed what you sawbecause I enjoyed making it.And if you did happen to like what you saw herein this episode of LGR Oddware, then stay tuned!There are new episodes of LGR thingsevery Monday and Friday, here on this very channel.And as always, thank you very muchfor watching what you just did!\n"