Bill Ehlert wrote:
>
> Kevin,
>
> I'd love to get a Plextor PX-W2410TA, a 24x-write drive. I've got an 8x HP
> now and use it to transfer files less that 700 MB. I could not bear the
> agony of using it to backup 8 to 10 Gigs every week. I'm too old for that.
> :-(
>
> I noticed that you mentioned your dad's law office. I assist my best friend,
> who is a dentist, in backing up his office files every day. He has a 20 Gig
> Linux server now that is used to store patient records and digital dental
> Xray images. We tried the CD jockey thing for about a month last year, and
> the office manager flipped and nearly quit. Now she backs up every day using
> the hard drive cartridge in 5 min or so and is VERY happy. She even offers
> candy to me now, when I visit the dental office. Guess she likes to see me
> :-)
>
> The dentist keeps 6 hard drive cartidge and rotates them, pulling the 6th
> for montly saves. Now for the cool stuff - he takes the backup offsite, as
> in home, with him every day and brings in an old drive back in the morning
> to be updated. He pops the backup in his home computer and verifies files.
> Here's the really good part - If a patient calls with an emergency after
> office hours, he has all their records and Xray images at home! He know what
> was done and uses the information to help his patients. I love it when that
> happens.
>
> The CD route may be just what you and your dad need, but be aware that over
> time 700 MB CDs will be a pain. We are thinking of going to a 80 Gig server
> and bigger harddrives in the next year or so. Remember to plan on future
> growth, especially in a law office.
>
> Good luck,
> Bill
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kevin Fogleman" <snotr0cket@home.com>
> To: <slug@nks.net>
> Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 2:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [SLUG] Inexpensive Tape Drive
>
> | Bill Ehlert wrote:
> | >
> | > Good suggestion Kevin.
> | >
> | > Robert can now choose which backup option to take - tape, CD burner ,
> mobile
> | > rack / hard drive.
> | > My experience with backups, over many years, has led me to migrate from
> 1)
> | > problematic tape to 2) lengthy CD burning disk jockey sessions, with
> | > occasional bad burns *ouch*, and finally to 3) fast and reliable
> removable
> | > hard drives.
> | >
> | > Just remember that hard drives can be mounted on LINUX and other OS's to
> | > transport files from platform to platform without the need for
> additional
> | > backup software that will be needed by tape drives and CD burners. I use
> my
> | > own scripts and cron to backup LINUX files and resort to DOS batch files
> on
> | > the other OS.
> | >
> | > Robert, my suggestion to you is to determine how much data you need to
> | > backup and choose the right media and what you want to pay in terms of
> | > hardware, software, and time. Time is money and the more time it takes
> to
> | > backup files presents another problem. The longer it takes to do the
> job,
> | > the less often you will want to do it. Are you willing to endure long
> backup
> | > sessions and play tape or CD jockey?
> | >
> | > Bottom line is - Keep it simple and fast. If you can, make it fun - or
> have
> | > someone else do it.
> | >
> | > Bill
> | >
> | > ----- Original Message -----
> | > From: "Kevin Fogleman" <snotr0cket@home.com>
> | > To: <slug@nks.net>
> | > Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 9:59 AM
> | > Subject: Re: [SLUG] Inexpensive Tape Drive
> | >
> | > | I'd recommend buying a good CD burner and then going with Mondo.
> Mondo is
> | > a backup program that not only archives your data to CD, but it
> | > | also allows you to make the CDs bootable, and it allows you to restore
> | > your *entire* system with one command that you type at bootup. It is
> | > | definitely worth checking out, it's what I'm going to be using with
> the
> | > server at my dad's law office.
> | > |
> | > | http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/
> | > |
> | > |
> | > | --Kevin Fogleman
> | > |
> | > | Robert Haeckl wrote:
> | > | >
> | > | > Looking to buy an inexpensive tape backup drive either new or maybe
> from
> | > | > Ebay. Would like to put a full backup and a week's worth of daily
> | > | > incrementals on one tape (~8-10 GB ought to be enough). I've been
> | > | > tarring selected directories onto a zip disk and occasionally
> burning an
> | > | > archive, but I would prefer to do full backups. Anybody have
> | > | > suggestions or preferences? ATAPI vs. SCSI? Seagate vs. HP vs.
> | > | > OnStream vs. ...? 8mm vs. Travan vs. ADR vs. ...?
> | > | >
> | > | > -Robert
> |
> | Actually, the whole CD disk jockey thing that one would have had to do 1
> or
> | 2 years ago has been what has largely made me skeptical of CD-based back
> | ups. However, with the advent of drives that can burn a full CD in 2 or 3
> | minutes (such as the Plextor PX-W2410TA, a 24x-write drive reviewed
> | recently at storagereview.com), it seems like that wouldn't be a problem
> | any more. Also, while that particular drive may retail for around $210 on
> | Pricewatch, there are many other reliable (read: low to no "coaster" rate)
> | drives out there at slower speeds that still write a whole CD in under 10
> | minutes.
> |
> | Also, with the low cost of CD-R media, you can make daily backups without
> | jepordizing any earlier backups that you had, in case you find, say, it's
> | Thursday, you suffered from data corruption in an infrequently used file
> on
> | Monday, but your latest backup was on Wednesday. If you're using tapes or
> | CDs, you will most likely have a copy of each daily backup so that you can
> | restore from a known-good copy.
> | --
> | --Kevin Fogleman
Ah, I can see where I was wrong in this. When I was suggesting using a CD
burner, at the time I was thinking about what we were going to be doing at
the office, namely just burning the OS and all the config files and such
onto CD so that it could be instantly restored in the event of a disk
failure, without the office people knowing how to use Linux.
They (allegedly) do a tape backup of all the critical files over the
network every day on one of the workstations that has a tape drive. Then
they lock the tapes (again, allegedly. The woman who is supposed to do
this is the same one who just yanked the plug out of her computer to turn
it off before I showed her the "off" button) in a fire-proof safe and keep
'em for a week. I don't think they've ever had to do a restore with them,
so I have no idea how reliable this actually is.
-- --Kevin Fogleman
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