Re: tape or hard drive?

[Erik Ableson]

Back to the list after a long absence - the only issue with hard drive solutions is that they are not complete backup solutions since if anything truly disastrous happens (theft, fire etc) all your data is in one place.  Multiple HD's rotated off-site will take care of this but in the long run, tape becomes cheaper when you start keeping redundant copies - and they've saved my bacon a few times!   Combining them makes for the best of both worlds in terms of data security with a local HD mirror for the quick accidental delete/system crash restores, and tape to handle the long term issues - "umm that project I worked on 6 months ago is gone".  Plus having tapes around gives you a nice archival option to free up disk space..   Cheers,   Erik Feeling desperately insecure since he isn't following his own advice at home :) ----- Original Message ----- From: Donovan Brooke To: retro-talk Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 5:04 PM Subject: Re: tape or hard drive?   I personally would get a buslink USB hard drive (or two or howevermany you need.) I might get some flack for suggesting this but It works great and its cheaper than tape. You also never have to change a tape.  The only thing to be leary about is its extention. being yet another 3rd party extention it might not play well with some.   I have tested this in two different situations and it works great.  We backup maybe 60 gigs just about every day.  This translates to 48 or so gigs (after 2 months) with Retros compression on. My next step is to impliment another one of these drives and start a rotating backup scheme so I can keep a copy off site.   ( if anyone has a step by step for this I'd appreciate it. )  This single Hard Drive has been backing up for about two months and can probably go for about another month before I will have to either re-write it or switch to another HD. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been using an external SCSI hd for my backups for over a year, and all has been going swimmingly -- 'til a few days ago when I inadvertently shut off the external before the system had properly shut it down.  The 'wrapper' and a couple of places on the 'extent' files were blown, damaged beyond fixing.  I urgently need a replacement. Now that I have the option, my dilemma is: Should I go with a tape system for backing up, or stick with a hd?  How long does a tape last before it gets stretched, or worn beyond useability? I'm using a G4/400/9.0.4 ... a single user, not on any network.  Would very much appreciate any and all feedback from yr personal experience re: 1) tape or hd, and 2) specifically WCH tape system y'all are most satisfied with, as I've never used one before.  Retrospect is TERRIFIC, and so at least ONE part of my solution is already in place. TIA, -- Donovan D. Brooke Systems Administrator/ Assc. Art Director Epsen Hillmer Graphics   "When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not, hm?" -Yoda