Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 15:38:01 -0400 (EDT) From: David Mayne <dmayne@mindspring.net> To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: CD writers as a backup medium Message-ID: <199808011938.PAA10383@icarus.eng.mindspring.net> In-Reply-To: <19980801144333.A12731@fcc.net> from Nathan Dorfman at "Aug 1, 98 02:43:33 pm"
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> > On Sat, 1 Aug 1998, Nathan Dorfman wrote: > > A 90 meter DAT tape can hold up to 4 gigs per tape. You can get them > for about $9 a piece, according to people who buy them. You'll need > 6 CDs to back up 4 gigs on CD, that's $6-9. Use the DAT tape twice > and you've already gotten your money's worth. A good CD-R drive is > $400 (SCSI). How much is a SCSI DAT drive, anyone? Plus, I'm not > even mentioning that you can buy 120m tapes for only a few dollars > more. Unfortunately, DAT tapes are extremely fragile, can be used only a few times, and can be stored in the best conditions (cool, dust free) for only about a year without risking data loss. The pattern written to the tapes is so tight that you may have bleed over affect with the bits after that year is up. DLT's write a nice wider format, but are very expensive. QIC drives are available from tandenbergdata.com which offer the best long term storage capability, and you can get them up to 5GB, and the drives can be had for around $500 refurbished. Unfortunately, the media is about $35 a tape, but they can be written to many times, and will store for 5-10 years. If you have data that has to be backed up daily, and want the backup to last more than a year, I would suggest QIC. CD's could be useful if you only need to do backups periodically (such as once a month). DAT tapes - in my experience, don't use one more than 5 times, and prepare to have data loss after a year or so, so a once yearly CD burn may be in order. Regards, David dmayne@mindspring.net To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199808011938.PAA10383>