[ale] Recommendation for off-line storage?

[Allan Metts]

At 03:48 PM 5/10/2006, Greg Freemyer wrote:

>If so, there is NO data or gaurentee on disk drives maintaining data
>with power off.
>
>We do it a lot around here, but we also make a tape backup before we
>put the drives on the shelf.

Well that certainly changes the equation.  I was indeed planning to leave these drives on the shelf.

I was planning to make two copies before deleting the on-line data -- so maybe I need to send one copy to tape (for long-term retention), and one to disk (for less-reliable retention, but easy searching and restoration).

So now I'm looking for a tape-based solution too?  Same parameters apply, I suppose:  Linux-friendly, non-proprietary, rack-mountable, minimal hassle.

Although the last time I dealt with tape drives, the tapes were only 20-40 GB.  I have 400 GB and the data center is a remote facility.  Now I'm talking a tape carousel?  Am I going about this all wrong?  Should just make two copies on IDE drives, take them off-line, and hope for the best?

A----