Re: Laptop tape backups
Quoting Mike Dresser <mdresser_l@windsormachine.com>:
[snip]
> Be wary of the Onstream units, at least the 30 gig unit, I had one years
> ago, and Onstream was not interested in fixing the lockups. As well,
> some google searching will show you just what people think of their
> stuff.
>
The early 30GB Onstream required special, proprietary drivers. The
later ones worked much better on Linux because the standard drivers
worked.
> Also, be wary of the Traven drives, I've replaced some of warranty
> replacements of warranty replacements. They're fine for about a year and
> then break.
>
I have a Seagate STT20000A Travan drive that has been doing daily
backups for four years.
> Look into DDS-4 drives, I believe the drives are around 600 apiece,
> and a cheap scsi card. Tapes are also MUCH cheaper, at about 10-15 dollars
> apiece. You could also get a DDS-3 for something like 350ish, and tapes
> are about 7.
>
People keep recommending this combination. I crunch the numbers and
I'll have to keep it for over a decade before the cheaper media saves
money.
> I know the tapes are small, but DLT drives are horribly expensive.
>
In my experience, if I have to be present to change tapes, backups do
not get done often enough.
Amanda and it's rolling backups can spread a big hard drive across
several tapes. It does a full backup of one piece and incrementals of
the other pieces every run.
> You could get an external enclosure(5.25"), and then a USB 2.0 to scsi
> adapter.(usb 1.0 won't be able to keep up with the 2 meg a second datarate
> of a dds at full stream)
>
>
Jeffrey
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