One thing to keep in mind for ‘long term’ archival is tape format and drive availability.
On older tapes I’d had problems reading from a newer but ‘downward read-only’ compatible drive, as head alignment can become an issue. With removable hard drives, the heads ( and their alignment) go with the platters. Not saying which is safer, I’m not qualified to state a fact there. But I am presenting an opinion to think about a bit more. Erik Goldoff IT Consultant Systems, Networks, & Security ' Security is an ongoing process, not a one time event ! ' From: Eric Brouwer [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 10:24 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Tape vs. external drive reliability? *sorry for the hijack* You bring up an interesting point with the failure rate issue. Are there any good studies on what is more reliable? Tape, external drives, etc? My current weekly backup is around 2TB as well, and I use an LTO library with 6 slots. 3 tapes covers my weekly full, and nightly differentials. So far, so good. (Knock on wood...) What is safer for long term archival purposes? Tape or hard drive? On Jul 28, 2010, at 10:13 AM, Sam Cayze wrote: ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
