[ale] Low-end tapedrives for SOHO environment

[tfreeman at intel.digichem.net]

On 19 Mar 2004, Joe Knapka wrote:

> <griffisb at bellsouth.net> writes:
> 
> > I didn't want to hijack the Bacula thread, but did want to discuss various options for tape backups for the small office/home office environment. Particularly for a charity (church) on a budget.
> > 
> > I saw the discussions on good tape drive units, but know a church (or home user) would have problems justifying 1K or so. How do the IDE tape drives stack up as far as reliability? I saw that you can pick up a Seagate 10/20Gig IDE Tape Drive unit for $184 or so online. That is closer to my budget. Even saw them for less. Looks like tapes are in the $34 range. 
> 
> It's probably a Travan drive. Those things are like inkjet printers:
> cheap up front, but the ongoing maintenance will bankrupt you.
> 
> Look for a SCSI DAT drive on eBay. You can get similar prices for
> similar drive capacities (if you buy used), but DAT tapes are closer
> to $7 each.
> 
> Anyway, as another poster pointed out, an extra HD or two is probably
> the cheapest solution. Cheap tapes will never keep up with HD
> capacity, so you'll never be able to do a complete system backup on
> tape, barring some fundamental technology innovation.

My appologies if ignorance butts in here, but this feels a little like 
another of those horrid "it depends" situations. Granted, tape for most 
back-up applications is probably dead. Tape itself is relatively cheap, 
but the drives and packaging kill the technology. If the prime purpose of 
the backup is quick recovery from horrid disaster, a trio or so of HD's of 
sufficient size, caddies, and the drawer thingy in a computer case is 
likely to be the most cost effective. Longer term archival style backup 
("here are my financials, business letters, and product for 2003, first 
quarter") CD/DVD would seem to make more sense. I'm not sure how legal 
records would affect the balance. (Could be an interesting situation too)


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