QIC
Short for Quarter-Inch Cartridge, QIC was first introduced in 1983 as a low cost magnetic data tape storage used for backing up data and was the first tape drive standard. Although some QIC disks and drives are compatible with one another, ensure that it is stated or verified by the manufacturer before purchasing a QIC tape or drive. QIC disks are available in various sizes; however, they are commonly 40MB to 25GB.
Many computers and some servers utilized the QIC-40 and QIC-80 for a replacement of the floppy disk drive and commonly connected to the floppy controller. QIC is commonly labeled as QIC-XXXX-XX, where the first four Xs (this could also be two or three) may be a number used to identify the tape, this is usually the size of the tape, but not always.
Below is a listing of some of the commonly used QIC tapes and their capacity.
| Tape | Capacity | Tape | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| QIC-24-DC | 60 MB | QIC-3010-MC | 340 MB |
| QIC-40-MC | 40 MB | QIC-3020-MC | 680 MB |
| QIC-80-MC | 80 MB | QIC-3040-MC | 1 GB |
| QIC-120-MC | 120 MB | QIC-3080-MC | 1.6 GB |
| QIC-525-DC | 525 MB | QIC-3095-MC | 4 GB |
| QIC-1000-DC | 1.01GB | QIC-3210-MC | 2.3 GB |
| QIC-1350-DC | 1.35 GB | QIC-3220-MC | 10 GB |
| QIC-2100-MC | 2.1 GB |
Also see: DAT, Tape definitions