restore from tape

Howdy:

Running PostgreSQL 7.2.1 on RedHat Linux 7.2 kernel 2.4.7-10.

I'm revamping a lot of our backup process and trying to figure
out new methods for a lot of the ways we do business here.

For example, if I want to restore a table from a previous
dump, I would copy the file from where it's currently being
saved (a backup server that has an NFS mounted filesystem)
and do something like 'psql -U <name-of-table> -d <database>.

Now, (after about a year of begging and pleading) I have a
tape drive (Dell PowerVault 120T DLT4000 Tape Autoloader)
and I need to create a better process for backup and
recovery.

I am currently looking for a few things:

* New backup suggestions

* Any suggestions as to doing a pg_dump directly to
tape (if anyone else has done the same) and if
data recovers well.
+ An outstanding issue is that large tables (>2 Gig)
will terminate before completing

* Suggest low cost / free backup solutions (what can I say?
we're broke!) for an autoloader
+ I've heard about 'Amanda', but, I don't have the
space to spool files and THEN back them up

That's about all for now. Thanks!

-X