I want to backup my computer to a tape - what are the best drive/tapes in your experience?

1/2/2007 3:51:56 PM

"Best" is hard to define. How much storage do you need?

1/2/2007 5:23:15 PM

i think you first have to answer the question specifically why you want to/feel you have to use tape for this.

1/2/2007 5:41:09 PM

you need a Sun L700, stocked with a bunch of SUN 380-0793

1/2/2007 6:09:47 PM

^^

1/2/2007 6:35:36 PM

because it will

A) be easier
B) last forever

maybe i sent you down the wrong path when i said "computer" - i meant pictures, data, etc. that i dont want to lose ever. i didn't mean OS or programs.

i prob only need about a terrabyte worth of storage ultimately

[Edited on January 2, 2007 at 8:40 PM. Reason : s]

1/2/2007 8:35:51 PM

for only 1tb, it would be far easier and cheaper to build a machine with 3 or 4 320gb ide drives, a p2, 64mb of ram, and a nic. load it with a nix flavor of your choosing and install the samba package. copy what you need to the machine then let it sit.

that or invest in some dvd-r's

1/2/2007 9:19:28 PM

durrr... what part of "lasts forever" flew over your head

you think i don't know about dvd-r and hard drives? there's a reason i'm asking about tapes

1/2/2007 10:19:51 PM

a tape is just a magnetic storage medium. laser burning on silicon isn't going to just "wear off" especially archival quality just sitting on a shelf. same with a hard drive if you just turn it off once the backup is complete.

1/2/2007 10:35:20 PM

o rly

i can't believe you guys are seriously contending that hard drives are better for archival than tapes

and then i bet you go post on that tech-support thread complaining that your mom doesn't know how to use photoshop

[Edited on January 3, 2007 at 10:16 AM. Reason : s]

1/3/2007 10:16:18 AM

Tape is just as bad as cheap CD-R's if not worse. Most estimates I've heard for actual storage life is between 2 and 5 years for tape media (up to an optimistic 10 years for some.) Archival grade CD-R's are rated for about 300 years. Sure that's a bit optimistic, but they're still a hell of a lot more resilient than tape media. There are also archival DVD-R's but they're only rated at 100 years. Still much longer than tape actually lasts without periodic reading and recopying though. You're also more likely to find something that reads it 15 years from now if your current drive breaks.

http://www.conservationresources.com/Main/section_6/section6_11.htm

Obviously 1TB on optical media will take a while, but since you seem to be stressing that you want to keep this stuff "forever" then it wouldn't really matter all that much. Of course, if when you say forever you mean 5 years, then sure go use tape. If that's what you mean though, then bitching and whining when someone suggests harddrives is kind of retarded.

[Edited on January 3, 2007 at 11:12 AM. Reason : ]

1/3/2007 10:51:20 AM

tapes only last 5 years? yea right

1/3/2007 11:20:21 AM

1TB of pictures and "data"? you like porn a lot don't you?

seriously, if you think tapes are better than archival quality optical, you're just retarded and deserve to spend the grand plus it's going to cost you to back up a TB on tape

1/3/2007 11:29:19 AM

Quote :

"tapes only last 5 years? yea right"

Your denial won't make tapes last longer. Although, you could try denying what I actually said for starters. 5 years is the median life estimate for tape media. There's a lot of tape media and 10 years was the upper estimate for some. Be aware that manufacturer estimates are often extremely optimistic and are predicated on you treating the media (any media for that matter, tape or not) with absolute care.

[Edited on January 3, 2007 at 12:02 PM. Reason : ]

1/3/2007 12:00:10 PM

a quick google search says the standard lifespan for magnetic tape is 10-30 years.

1/3/2007 12:07:13 PM

i also see no reason not to go with extra harddrives. there are so many advantages to that. 1TB of storage can be had for <$400 now, and within a couple years probably for $100. At that cost, if you want to be safe, you can just transfer data every 5, 7, 10 years to a new set of hard drives. Hell, you could do a couple HDDs now, then wait for HD-DVDs or whatever optical solution is next and use several 50GB DVDs.

or you could (or rather, probably should) go with an NAS or external storage system or service. You say "ultimately" you might need 1TB, but for now, unless you are backing up dozens or ripped DVDs or hundreds of movies, you probably only have 10s or a couple hundred GB, no? You can get a webhost like 1and1 with 200GB of storage for $5/month, or any of the other storage services, like Amazon A3 for $0.15/GB/mo.

1/3/2007 1:14:54 PM

no, basically all i'm trying to backup are snapshots of vacations and friends that i've taken over the years with my digital camera. also some random computer files that i don't want to lose (classic TWW threads, for example)

This is the first i'm hearing that cd is better than tape, which is interesting to me, in light of the fact that corporations use tapes as their final backup policy

but i'll look into it

1/3/2007 4:25:48 PM

get some Taiyo Yuden DVD+R's
http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yuden-dvd-r-media.html

1/3/2007 4:47:13 PM

Quote :

"a quick google search says the standard lifespan for magnetic tape is 10-30 years."

And articles in scientific american as well as information from sites dedicated to data preservation would disagree. The -30 years assumes periodicly refreshing the tapes as well.

Quote :

"in light of the fact that corporations use tapes as their final backup policy"

Because they work in the amazingly expensive tape backup machines they've already sunk money into and can be updated. Archival grade CD media is write once only. If you plan on doing hourly or daily backups of massive ammounts of data and need to be able to update that data regularly, then you have a point.

[Edited on January 3, 2007 at 6:21 PM. Reason : ]

1/3/2007 6:19:09 PM

^ what does scientific american say about tapes?

i am really shocked to hear that their lifespan is equivalent to the average CD - and like you mentioned, am thinking that those lifespans are assuming regular reads/writes to the tape rather than a single write

I also didn't realize that tape drives were so expensive. I figured there were some drives out there available for home use... shit my old commodore had one

[Edited on January 3, 2007 at 7:15 PM. Reason : s]

1/3/2007 7:14:58 PM

your old commodore didn't have a modern one with anywhere near the capacity

1/4/2007 11:58:24 AM

so what is the best recordable DVD media? (brand?) and -R i would assume?

1/4/2007 1:00:00 PM

^ i've had best of luck in terms of compatibility with -R than +R
brand does matter sometimes.....i usually stick with verbatim or imation...some others like taiyo yuden and ritek is good but depends on model #

1/4/2007 1:22:58 PM

this post reminds me of back in the days when i had my 486dx33 with a 10MB tape drive and i thought i was da bomb amongst my neighbors only to be dethroned by my friend who got a 486dx66

this was several years after my IBM PC AT12

1/4/2007 1:25:07 PM