[ale] Recommendation for off-line storage?

[Robert Story]

On Thu, 11 May 2006 16:29:47 -0400 Geoffrey wrote:
G> Okay, my post was tongue in cheek, but if you want to go this route, how 
G> long do you think it would take to burn the 29 dual layer disks (400Gb) 
G> or the 58 single layer disks?  It's not even remotely a possibility.
G> 
G> > Of course, my slant here is of a home user w/too much data. If he's
G> > talking corporate bucks, sure, spring for a fancy tape drive.
G> 
G> Regardless, the time it would take to burn the disks would, in the long 
G> run, justify the cost of different hardware.

I beg to differ. It's a classic case of time vs cost. 400GB to 100 4GB
discs, assuming 3/day (1 before work, 1 after, 1 before before bed time),
would take a little over a month. Less if you can do more than 3 on the
weekend and/or train the wife to check the burner a few times per day. Even
less if you have more than 1 burner.

The cost of a tape drive (800GB w/compression) was $4k. In my house, that's
not a justified cost against 5 minutes x 3 per day. Again, home use. (Married
with children, didn't make millions during the dot-com bubble.)