Purchasing advice: tape drive
hello all!
i need some advice from AI readers on tape drives.
i need to buy a cheap-ish tape drive for backing up our file server for off-site storage. having had a look all the manufacturers i thought made drives don't seem to any more (lacie etc).
plus there seems even more choice of tape size etc.
any advice on what to buy? i've seen a sony AIT-1 turbo firewire/usb2 tape drive which seems good (and in budget). i know nothing about the merits of AIT though?
i need some advice from AI readers on tape drives.
i need to buy a cheap-ish tape drive for backing up our file server for off-site storage. having had a look all the manufacturers i thought made drives don't seem to any more (lacie etc).
plus there seems even more choice of tape size etc.
any advice on what to buy? i've seen a sony AIT-1 turbo firewire/usb2 tape drive which seems good (and in budget). i know nothing about the merits of AIT though?
Comments
You would be better off (and maybe cheaper in the long run) to use external HDDs, Tape is a royal PITA.
For daily off site backups use 2 external HDDs, one always being off site (and -of cource- off line). the other one should just plug into the box and do the backup, then taken off site, and swapped with the older backup, which comes back for the following days backup. using this methos, you always have an onsite backup less than 48 hrs old and an offsite that is no more than 24 hrs old.
If it is a server chassy:
Any server worth its salt will have at least one hot swap bay, use that.
Long term backup/archives.
you have 2 real non-tape options here for off-line: first, use DVDs and toss them in a data vault, or get a third HDD and do a yearly (or monthly or weekly, whatever long term archive frequncy you need) backup to that and put it in a third secure location, like an off-site data vault or a bank safe-deposit box.
Originally posted by a_greer
If you are using a tower:
You would be better off (and maybe cheaper in the long run) to use external HDDs, Tape is a royal PITA.
thanks -- i don't know that much about tape so good to have feedback
For daily off site backups use 2 external HDDs, one always being off site (and -of cource- off line). the other one should just plug into the box and do the backup, then taken off site, and swapped with the older backup, which comes back for the following days backup. using this methos, you always have an onsite backup less than 48 hrs old and an offsite that is no more than 24 hrs old.
we actually backup the server now (its a G4 tower with multiple internal drives) to an external firewire drive.
my concern (and it seems silly) is that lugging home a firewire drive every night and then in the morning is a pain. where as a tape is easier!
but your plan for swapping is exactly how i imagined, but with tape...
Long term backup/archives.
you have 2 real non-tape options here for off-line: first, use DVDs and toss them in a data vault, or get a third HDD and do a yearly (or monthly or weekly, whatever long term archive frequncy you need) backup to that and put it in a third secure location, like an off-site data vault or a bank safe-deposit box.
we have actually just going the DVD route now for archived projects (had a moment of panic about how none of our work is backed-up off site!).
archived jobs go onto 2 DVDs then removed from the file server. one copy stays in the studio for quick retrieval, and the other goes off site.
as far as software goes, we use a combination of retrospect and cdfinder . the later being one of the most useful pieces of software that we purchased in years.
Originally posted by trick fall
Have heard nothing good about tape drives and second the firewire drive idea. Also if you have the drives it's a good idea to mirror the server drives.
ditto on the the mirrored raid option. i had forgotten about that as part of our backup as well..
from your advice i think we will go the hard drive route.
will i be ok slinging a standard external hard drive (for example a lacie d2 or porsche one) in and out of a bag every other day?