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Date:      Mon, 3 Aug 1998 08:55:59 -0400
From:      Brian Cully <shmit@kublai.com>
To:        Scott <scott@SchematiX.net>, "Louis A. Mamakos" <louie@TransSys.COM>
Cc:        Nathan Dorfman <nathan@fcc.net>, Andrew Bromage <bromage@queens.unimelb.edu.au>, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: CD writers as a backup medium
Message-ID:  <19980803085559.23851@kublai.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.01.9808011250350.295-100000@SchematiX.net>; from Scott on Sat, Aug 01, 1998 at 12:53:57PM -0700
References:  <199808011928.PAA12685@whizzo.transsys.com> <Pine.BSF.4.01.9808011250350.295-100000@SchematiX.net>

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> > I bought a reconditioned DDS-2 changer (that holds 4 or 12 tapes depending
> > on the magazine) for a bit less than $400.  Media is about $7-$12 depending
> > on what you find.
> 
> Thats some serious data storage. Brand new that thing would be extremely
> expensive.

A new HP DDS-2 drive will run you about $400-500, and those are pretty
expensive for that medium. With compression you can get up to 8 GB, good
media can be about $10. With a CD-R and compression you can get about
1.2 GB, and good media can be about $5 (you can get cheaper, but it gets
pretty flaky). So for DDS-2 media, you're paying about $1.25/GB and for
CD-R you get $4.16/GB.

The cost of the device to write it is about the same for both.

DDS-2 media is pretty flaky, in my experience, so I wouldn't use it
for Real Backups, but then again, CD-R is equally as flaky (if not
more so).

> CDs are so cheap nowdays that there is no sense for a rewritable when it
> would be just as quick/easy to rewrite the whole thing.

Whatta waste.

If you're not worried about expense, why don't you save the money you'd
be wasting on CDs and buy a DLT drive (mmm.... DLT....)? :-)

Besides, it's not the expense of the media that bothers me so much, it's
going out and buying it, but with a DDS tape I can just re-use it, and
formatting is as easy as pulling out the de-gausser. Of course, you
do miss one of my favourite uses of CDs: zapping them in the microwave.

-- 
Brian Cully						<shmit@erols.com>
``And when one of our comrades was taken prisoner, blindfolded, hung
  upside-down, shot, and burned, we thought to ourselves, `These are the
  best experiences of our lives''' -Pathology (Joe Frank, Somewhere Out There)

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