Quarter Inch Cartridge (QIC)

QIC (Quarter Inch Cartridge) is a magnetic tape system formerly used to create backups of data. In the 1980s, QIC drives were mainly used in UNIX servers as well as PCs. The data carriers were cassettes (mini-QIC or mini-DC) whose magnetic tapes were up to 460 mm long and up to 6.5 mm wide. Storage capacity was limited to 20 GB. Later, Tandberg Data developed the so-called Multichannel Linear Recording (MLR), which increased the storage capacity up to 50 GB. There were over 40 different types of cartridges with a storage capacity between 15 MB and 50 GB.