On Tue, 2007-07-17 at 13:24 -0700, Gregory K. Ruiz-Ade wrote: > On Jul 17, 2007, at 12:52 PM, Paul G. Allen wrote: > > > CDs, especially CDRs and RWs have a very short shelf life, IIRC 3-5 > > years. Magnetic tape has a far longer life and in case of fire, the > > tape > > case will melt and burn before the tape itself does (the problem is > > if/when the case melts all over the tape, encasing the tape in a > > coffin). > > It's a damned shame that high-capacity tape drives cost so much... > > I really miss having a good tape backup at home that wasn't fragile > (i.e., my external hard drives are fast and capacious, but you can > drop a tape cartridge with far fewer consequences than dropping a > hard drive.) >
Reminds me of a HDD I had a few years ago that decided it didn't want to un-park the heads when I powered it up. It had some data on it I really wanted. I figured for all intents and purposes it was FUBAR and I'd never get the data off anyway (I couldn't afford the $900 it would cost to have the data recovered). So... ...I banged the side of it hard on the table, plugged it back in, and it worked. I copied the data off and threw the drive in the trash (after erasing it). PGA -- Paul G. Allen BSIT/SE Owner/Sr. Engineer Random Logic Consulting www.randomlogic.com -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
