From owner-freebsd-stable Mon Aug 3 05:56:47 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id FAA20186 for freebsd-stable-outgoing; Mon, 3 Aug 1998 05:56:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from coleridge.kublai.com (coleridge.kublai.com [207.96.1.116]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id FAA20166 for ; Mon, 3 Aug 1998 05:56:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from shmit@natasya.kublai.com) Received: from natasya.kublai.com (natasya.kublai.com [207.172.25.236]) by coleridge.kublai.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id IAA09890; Mon, 3 Aug 1998 08:56:01 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from shmit@natasya.kublai.com) Received: (from shmit@localhost) by natasya.kublai.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) id IAA03224; Mon, 3 Aug 1998 08:55:59 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <19980803085559.23851@kublai.com> Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 08:55:59 -0400 From: Brian Cully To: Scott , "Louis A. Mamakos" Cc: Nathan Dorfman , Andrew Bromage , freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: CD writers as a backup medium Reply-To: shmit@kublai.com Mail-Followup-To: Scott , "Louis A. Mamakos" , Nathan Dorfman , Andrew Bromage , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org References: <199808011928.PAA12685@whizzo.transsys.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.89i In-Reply-To: ; from Scott on Sat, Aug 01, 1998 at 12:53:57PM -0700 X-Sender: If your mailer pays attention to this, it's broken. X-PGP-Info: finger shmit@kublai.com for my public key. Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > I bought a reconditioned DDS-2 changer (that holds 4 or 12 tapes depending > > on the magazine) for a bit less than $400. Media is about $7-$12 depending > > on what you find. > > Thats some serious data storage. Brand new that thing would be extremely > expensive. A new HP DDS-2 drive will run you about $400-500, and those are pretty expensive for that medium. With compression you can get up to 8 GB, good media can be about $10. With a CD-R and compression you can get about 1.2 GB, and good media can be about $5 (you can get cheaper, but it gets pretty flaky). So for DDS-2 media, you're paying about $1.25/GB and for CD-R you get $4.16/GB. The cost of the device to write it is about the same for both. DDS-2 media is pretty flaky, in my experience, so I wouldn't use it for Real Backups, but then again, CD-R is equally as flaky (if not more so). > CDs are so cheap nowdays that there is no sense for a rewritable when it > would be just as quick/easy to rewrite the whole thing. Whatta waste. If you're not worried about expense, why don't you save the money you'd be wasting on CDs and buy a DLT drive (mmm.... DLT....)? :-) Besides, it's not the expense of the media that bothers me so much, it's going out and buying it, but with a DDS tape I can just re-use it, and formatting is as easy as pulling out the de-gausser. Of course, you do miss one of my favourite uses of CDs: zapping them in the microwave. -- Brian Cully ``And when one of our comrades was taken prisoner, blindfolded, hung upside-down, shot, and burned, we thought to ourselves, `These are the best experiences of our lives''' -Pathology (Joe Frank, Somewhere Out There) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message