Re: Backup media; comments would be appreciated.

• Previous message: Al Dykes: "Re: Backup media; comments would be appreciated."
• In reply to: Gaetan Martineau: "Backup media; comments would be appreciated."
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Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2003 20:16:57 -0700

Gaetan Martineau wrote:

> I am thinking about a USB ZIP IOMEGA 750 Mbytes external drive as a
> device for backing up data for a small home network (backing up Windows
> as well as Linux partitions). Thanks for comments about the following
> ideas of mine:
>
> - was thinking about a Seagate travan Tape. BUT: Seems expensive and I
> have never see one installed or functionning. It seems a bit of a risky
> investment. (?)
>
> - CD-Rom seems a bit lousy for backing up data. (?)
>
> - At work, I use (and really enjoy) 5Gb or 20 Gb exabyte tape drives.
> realiable, fast and spacy. But SO expensive! Too much for our house.
>
> I currently back up data on 100 Mbytes ZIP disks. So far no trouble.
> Guess an upgrade to 750 Mbytes would lead to the same reliability.
>
> Thanks for your ideas.
>
> Gaetan

I would say, in my opinion, that it wouldn't really matter what backup media
you choose so long as it's got enough room for what you need. I've had no
problem using any media for backups, since I only copy over the files that
i need to keep. I never backup my OS's preferences. I backup my
MyDocuments files and my email.
Another thing would be if you can afford the backup media. CD-R is
inexpensive usually, so those can be used.
If you truly want an interesting and bullet-proof way to back stuff up, buy
two identical hard drives, or one identical to the one you have, and put
them on a RAID mirroring array. A hard drive can go bad, and yet the OS
will continue to work, since both hard drives are made to be identical
copies of each other.
But like I said, it's money and space. If you have the money, and the
backup media has enough space on it, you can use it. But this is a touchy
thing to talk about, since in my opinion it's more about preference.
I know that backing up on separate 100mb zip disks can be annoying though,
with all the disk swapping. Therefore, 750mb zip may be the best way to
backup in your case, because those drives are back-compatible with 100mb
and 250mb zip disks (as far as i know).

-- 
Peter's Law of Substitution:
        Look after the molehills, and the mountains will look after
themselves.

• Previous message: Al Dykes: "Re: Backup media; comments would be appreciated."
• In reply to: Gaetan Martineau: "Backup media; comments would be appreciated."
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