From owner-freebsd-hardware Sat Apr 10 12: 3:13 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from alice.gba.oz.au (gba-254.tmx.com.au [203.9.155.254]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 2CFE714F32 for ; Sat, 10 Apr 1999 12:03:07 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from gjb-freebsd@gba.oz.au) Received: (qmail 24020 invoked by uid 1001); 10 Apr 1999 08:50:46 -0000 Message-ID: <19990410085046.24019.qmail@alice.gba.oz.au> X-Posted-By: GBA-Post 1.03 20-Sep-1998 X-PGP-Fingerprint: 5A91 6942 8CEA 9DAB B95B C249 1CE1 493B 2B5A CE30 Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 18:50:45 +1000 From: Greg Black To: Greg Lehey Cc: Dan Janowski , Joerg Micheel , freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: DDS-2/DDS-3 drives References: <19990410131624.H2142@lemis.com> <19990410134632.J2142@lemis.com> In-reply-to: <19990410134632.J2142@lemis.com> of Sat, 10 Apr 1999 13:46:32 +0930 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Greg Lehey writes: > I'm seriously wondering whether I can be bothered with helical scan > tapes, though. I've been using them for years, and they're the most > unreliable part of the system by a long shot. My helical scan tapes are *now* the most unreliable parts of the systems I use, although I'd rate them as better than the QIC tapes that I used previously (and which some of my customers still use). In comparison to stuff like disks, tapes just can't compare -- and it's probably unrealistic to expect them to. My own view is that tapes (of any kind) are unreliable but still the only practical medium for off-site backups. So, pick one that suits your budget and size requirements, replace the media at regular intervals, and check the integrity of the data on the tapes. One day, the hardware guys will come up with something that is as useful as tape but which works as well as disks and then, once the price comes down, we can all just change to it. -- Greg Black To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message