Chris Loiacono wrote:
>
> I apologize for re-opening this thread....but I am trying to put together a
> back-up strategy for a small (6 station) peer to peer windows network and
> some of the thoughts that showed up here have me a bit uncertain when I
> combine them with what I'm finding when I research the subject elsewhere. I
> tend to trust the technical opinions of list members  - especially when
> compared to those of technical sale people trying to sell me on their
> choice...so please, check out my thinking and reply if you like...
>
> 1. HDD's seem most logical to me - lowest cost per Gig, fast read and write
> cycles. Swappable drives in arrays such as RAID seem to make even more
> sense - pull the drive, put in a fire box and insert the alternate drive.
> Yet these seem to be less available and the cost seems the same as it was 5
> yrs ago - indicating that this is less than popular.
>
> 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

Yes, up to a point. Once you have the tape robot, you have economic
inertia, so you keep feeding it tape.

> there are still many offerings in this area.
>
> Is there a technical reason that tape is still so widely used, and am I
> missing something?
> What really is the medium of choice for back-up?

Depends on what kind of $$$ you have to spend.
Tape is rugged. You can drop it 4' and it will generally survive.
If the case breaks, you can rethread it into a new case.
Not so with a HD.

Tape has been around a long time, and the capacities have grown slowly,
but reliably (lots of CRC & ECC written so a few drop-outs/damage
are well tolerated). Tape drives are expensive, and have to be replaced
regularly (3-5 years depending on brand and use).

You can't cheaply (or as quickly) put 60GB of data onto tape, as you
can to a removable HD. It is only of late that HD prices and capacities
have reached a level where they make a good alternative to tape.


Our local Liuux users group had a good discussion about this topic
last month and the concensus was removable HD for home users, mirror
RAID for small business, and tape for those with real $$ to spend.

Gigabit ethernet NICs are not that expensive, and firewire or
fiberchannel drives made for easy/cheaper DIY RAID (particularly with
Linux servers).

My 1.3 Canadian cents worth <G>.

Robert

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