[164] in winnt
Re: Tape Backups
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tom Fitzgerald)
Fri May 29 13:39:07 1998
To: "Peter H. Lemieux" <phl@cyways.com>
Cc: Hans Dietrich <hansdiet@MIT.EDU>, ntpartners@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 29 May 1998 10:34:05 EDT."
<Pine.LNX.3.95.980529102805.16363W-100000@kermit.cyways.com>
Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 13:39:01 EDT
From: Tom Fitzgerald <tfitz@MIT.EDU>
> I'd avoid DAT drives. Even products from typically high-quality
> manufacturers like HP seem to have really poor life spans.
Just for a counterexample.... I've had great luck with DAT (4mm) drives,
using Sony or Archive drives, across a past job, current job and home
systems. For small to medium sized networks (up to 20 GB of daily backups)
I'd recommend DDS3 drives, and for larger nets I'd recommend DLT. I've
never tried restoring anything more than a few years old, though.
For 4mm tapes you MUST use data-grade tapes, not audio-grade.
I'm not sure 8mm tapes can really hold their own any more. 4mm tapes
are cheaper and more convenient, and DLT is higher-capacity, faster and
longer-lived. The biggest current advantage of 8mm tapes is for sharing
data with sites that have 8mm media throughout.
