[list] [ale] Need advice on home back-up solution

[Bob Toxen]

On Mon, Sep 29, 2003 at 12:31:28PM -0400, Greg Freemyer wrote:
> On Sun, 2003-09-28 at 18:02, David Corbin wrote:
> > On Sunday 28 September 2003 17:51, Geoffrey wrote:
> > > David Corbin wrote:
> > > >>>Tapes are not really very good long-term storage.  I often run into
> > > >>>trouble trying to read a tape that wasn't "just written".

> > > >>Define 'just written'?

> > > > Anything older than a week, is not "just written".  Mind you, this is
> > > > over the course of many years of working with tapes, but not recently. 
> > > > And I'm not saying the majority, just that it happens often enough.

> > > I would say that if you've got tapes that don't last more than a week,
> > > you've got a lousy tapes or some other problem.  I've re-read tapes that
> > > were over a year old.  Tape failure within a couple weeks just shouldn't
> > > happen.
Agreed.  Most tapes should be good for 5-20 years.  I wouldn't trust
a disk more than a year or so in storage.


> > You're right, it shouldn't.  But it does.  In my experience, tapes ARE 
> > fragile.    I've stopped using tapes (as you noticed).

> I think you are over generalizing.

> Low end tapes like Travan, DDS 2, DDS 3, etc. are notorious for there
> un-reliability.
Not in my experience (with DDS 2 and DDS 3).

> Higher-end tapes like DLT, LTO, AIT, should be reliable, but IIRC a new
> tape drive in this class is $4K plus.
NOT worth the money unless you're talking an enterprise with more than
10-20 people or a LOT of data.

> Greg
Bob