Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (
More info?)
Winey wrote:
> On Wed, 26 May 2004 13:49:14 -0400, "J. Clarke"
> <jclarke@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>
>>Obadiah wrote:
>
>>LTO and DLT are very well established, very reliable devices that are
>>priced
>>out of the reach of most individual computer users. 8mm helical scan
>>(AIT,
>>VXA, Exabyte Mammoth), is a little less pricey and still very reliable
>>but
>>it's still more than most folks can afford. 4mm helical scan (DDS or DAT)
>>is decent but the tapes have a limited service life, the drives have to be
>>cleaned on schedule or they act up, and the largest DDS drive is only 36
>>gig and costs as much as an 80 gig VXA. The rest, forget about it,
>>they're all junk.
>
> You can pick up a nice Exabyte for a few hundred bucks (8505) or a bit
> more for an 8705 on EBay. Uncompressed capacity is 7 GB, not as much
> as you're seeking, but good software can address that (more about
> later).
>
> 8 mm Exabyte (non-Mammoth) tapes are readily available on EBay for a
> $1-3 each. And, with tapes, you can store backups offsite, and you
> can store more than a few days worth of backups. What happens when
> you need to retrieve a good copy of a file that was somehow trashed
> two weeks ago? Disk? I doubt that.
If you're only storing 7 gig, that's 2 DVDs. 8mm drives don't need to be
cleaned quite as religiously as 4mm, but they still need regular
maintenance. If your ebay drive is not new in sealed box there's a good
chance that it's dead. Further, the tapes wear out--again if those tapes
are not new in sealed box they're very likely dead.
> Consider Retrospect by Dantz Software. www.dantz.com. About $90k for
> the Professional version. With Dantz, once you have done a full
> backup, each subsequent backup includes only those files that have
> been changed.
That is called an "incremental backup" and Windows backup does that just
fine, you don't need to spend "$90k" for it.
If you're doing 7 gig at a time then a single 70 gig disk will hold ten of
those. Or you can use 10 7 gig drives which go for about the same price as
those tapes.
> And it is smart enough to know which files do NOT need
> to be restored, if you are rebuilding a disk.
You're saying that it doesn't restore files that have been deleted since the
backup? Or that it doesn't overwrite files? Or that you can tell it which
files to restore? Or what?
> This works fine,but in
> practice, you will want to start a new backup cycle every so often.
>
> Dantz is head-and-shoulders above "personal" backup programs like
> BackUpMyPC. If you do decide to go with disk-to-disk or disk-to-CDR
> backup, Dantz supports those options too. Check it out. Well worth
> it.
Windows Backup supports disk to disk or to any other media that can be
mounted as a disk including network shares.
>>Best bet with tape would be a VXA-2 drive, which is about a thousand bucks
>>plus host adapter plus 70 bucks a shot for 60 gig tapes.
>
> See above. Even if you do go with a VAX-2 drive, consider sourcing
> your tapes from EBay.
You can get VXA-2 tapes for less on ebay but you can also get hard drives
for less on ebay, and it's even money which is more likely to work.
>>Now consider that Newegg has 80 gig hard drives in stock from all major
>>manufacturers for under 70 bucks a shot. Using those drives, a suitable
>>enclosure, and the right host adapter you can set up a daily rotation
>>backup on a 7-day cycle with removable media for less than the price of
>>that drive and one tape.
>>>
>>> Thanks for your help.
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
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