>2. Tape must be less reliable and is definitely slower. Plus there is the
>added cost of consumables.  I am finding that many large networks are backed
>up on tape - perhaps because the economics of buying many tapes is better
>than buying many hard drives. Many small networks are backed up on tape, and
>there are still many offerings in this area.

Tape is cost effective and reliable.  The best bang for the buck right now
seems to be DDS-2 tape - my cost is less than $10.00 Canadian per tape in
small quantities.  All my tape drives have hardware compression - that
DDS-2 tape holds about 6.4 gigs of typical user data.

While the tape itself has been reliable to date, the tape drives have been
less so.  I just had another HP DDS-2 drive fail - it will cost a hundred
dollars to get it back in working condition.  That is the main reason I
have multiple tape drives: one drive is always off site (with my off-site
backups) and 2 drives are here at work - on separate machines.  I use a DAT
tape control package called DATMAN - it turns the tape drive into a
gigantic but slow floppy drive that is readable just like any other
drive.  You have NO idea how truly useful that is until you try it - most
of my data recovery is to correct finger problems rather than total,
catastrophic failures.  Once the tape is mounted, it appears as a drive
letter and I can browse the tape to my heart's content.

Backup strategies are simple: I back up the server and the "My Documents"
folder on all client machines.  And that's all!  I don't bother with OS,
program files, OS temporary files.    I warn all users: store it on the
server or in your "My Documents" folder or else!

Like always - your mileage may vary.  I've been a huge fan of tape backup
since the days of the inexpensive Colorado drives in the late '80s - it
works for me.

dwayne


Dwayne Reid   <dwayner@planet.eon.net>
Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd    Edmonton, AB, CANADA
(780) 489-3199 voice          (780) 487-6397 fax

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