On Thu, Jan 03, 2008 at 09:56:19PM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote: > On 01/03/08 20:30, Douglas A. Tutty wrote: > > One of the threads over at [EMAIL PROTECTED] has gone OT (for them) into > > discussing backup media. The concensus there seems to be that tape > > (e.g. DLT) is still the best for long-term storage (e.g. archives) > > Do "they" even make new DLT 8000 drives anymore? We are happy with > SuperDLT2 drives, but are transitioning to LTO3. > > > because CD/DVDs fade rather quickly while hard drives get "bit rot" over the > > years and since they're not being run frequently you don't see error > > messages appearing. > > > > I'm wondering what people here on DU use. Lets say the archive size is > > 7 GB. It could fit on one DVD; one(?) or two USB sticks, SD cards, etc; > > 7GB? That was a lot in 1992, when DLT-III was king, but now DLT IV > is ancient, and 7GB is -- bluntly -- chickenfeed. >
Right. What about things of great sentimental value? E.g. family photos? What about financial records? Sure 7 GB is chickenfeed. It fits on one DVD. However, to put that on the shelf, what to use to make it last? > > an old spare hard drive or a new dedicated hard drive in (presumably) an > > external (USB, firewire, eSATA?) case. > > > > Do people still use tape? I note that the drive prices for used drives > > on eBay are quite low but then most (?) would need to add the > > appropriate scsi card since I doubt they would be SATA compatible. > > What kind? DLT8000 drives have been around now for 15 years > > > Other than rsyncing to another box, what do people use for > > put-it-on-the-shelf archiving? > > How important is the data? Personal or commercial? > > If a reputable archival company like Iron Mountain offers on-line > storage, then I'd encrypt it and drop it on their servers. So how do they store it? If they're just going to drop it onto a hard drive and forget about it, how is that different than me putting it on 2 hard drives: one on a backup server that runs so that hard drive errors show up; one in an external case that gets a fresh backup put on it every month or so and goes to the bank's safety deposit box? Or, if they're just going to archive it in a tape library, how is that different than me putting it on a tape and putting that in the bank? Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
