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Re: Backup Solutions



On Saturday 29 January 2005 14:49, Joe wrote:
>In message <3s5FS-1VD-3@gated-at.bofh.it>, Gene Heskett
><gene.heskett@verizon.net> writes
>
>>As it stands now, I would only consider the use of a different disk
>>technology called dvd-ram, but those units seem to be all setup to
>>operate in vcr mode for tv recording and such, none that I've seen
>>actually have a scsi or atapi interface available.  But then the
>> only ones I've seen are the pioneers intended to be vcr
>> workalikes.  The tv station has a 6 pack of those, and they are
>> working pretty good for program delay purposes in good old Never
>> Twice Same Color mode...
>>
>>The dvd-ram claims as much as 100k write cycles and unlimited
>> reads, where the dvd+-rw's I bought are only rated for maybe 1000
>> cycles. So basicly I've relegated them to making an occasional
>> linux install dvd only.  When they have been used up, no more of
>> those will be bought, I'll treat them all as throwaways like we do
>> cd's.
>
>I've recently bought an LG GSA-4160B which writes to all CD-shaped
> media currently popular, including RAM.
>
>I have to say I haven't yet tried it under Linux, but Win98 seems to
>handle it OK, with the exception that it can't deal with really big
>files. It can certainly erase DVD+RWs, though I wasn't impressed by
> the overhead/cluster size. I could get only about 1.8G of varied
> files on a 4.7G disc without tarring.
>
>I wouldn't have thought you could rely on tapes after 1000 passes,

Many tape formats *claim* (note the word) the ability to do 100,000 or 
more passes.  This includes DDS stuff, but I frankly cannot recall 
ever getting more than 100 or so passes personally from a stack of 
about 50 DDS2's I have.  But then thats a $2.50 dollar tape too, I 
would obviously expect better from some tape format where the tapes 
are $50 and up.

> so RWs aren't such a bad idea. Once a week with verify and two
> rewinds is about 1000 passes in five years: most people would want
> to replace them more often than that. Verify doesn't wear the disc,
> and you don't rewind, so one erase a week is about 20 years...

Which, if I could indeed erase them, would be fine as it would outlast 
the media r/p device itself by 19 years.

I have a file here which is supposed to be able to update this unit to 
do 4x dvd's, its currently rated at 2.5x, however I also have noted 
that even though its rated and advertised to be able to write at 52x, 
in the real world its only about 28-30x, on 52x rated media, with a 
minimum buffer fill of 98%.  But I also have NDI how I would apply 
that file to it using linux.

Has anyone actually done this with a utility such as dd?
Something along the lines of:

#>dd if=file-to-update-unit of=/dev/cdrom

But what bs should one specify?

>--
>Joe

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
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Yahoo.com attorneys please note, additions to this message
by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.



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