Mass Storage Recommendations

[Continuity28]

Thread title changed

Well, I don't really know much about tape drives.

I'm looking for a tape storage system that has large capacity (50GB+ per tape if possible) thats relatively cheap.

Speed is unimportant to me, this is purely for storage. I don't plan on viewing any matieral off the tapes themselves, all I need to to transfer material onto tapes and from the tapes onto standard hard drives again when necessary.

I prefer not to use DVDs for storage because I don't think they are as dependable for long term storage, am I correct?

Besides, DVDs and drives like the ZIP/REV are basically random access - and again I don't need that kind of utility or speed.

Any ideas? I'd just like to know whats out there thats all.

 

[greenmaji]

Have tape drives taken a dive in price since the last time I looked? If not right about any storage is cheaper per MB.

Would external hard drives do the job? or a single drive?

Im curious as to how many tapes you would need..

 

[Continuity28]

Originally posted by: greenmaji
Have tape drives taken a dive in price since the last time I looked? If not right about any storage is cheaper per MB.

Would external hard drives do the job? or a single drive?

Im curious as to how many tapes you would need..

Well yes, hard drives would work.

This seems odd that hard drives would be cheaper than tapes though... I mean with a hard drive you get much more speed, random access, and they last long as well. So why would anyone buy tapes now?

As for how many tapes, that depends on their capacity, but probably 2 - 5 TB.

 

[vegetation]

This seems odd that hard drives would be cheaper than tapes though... I mean with a hard drive you get much more speed, random access, and they last long as well. So why would anyone buy tapes now?

Off-site storage. That's why.

 

[Continuity28]

Alright, so what are my options, forgetting tapes then.

Needs to be external, so if the best option is hard drives, whats a good recommendation for a rack?

 

[greenmaji]

250GB seems to be the sweet spot for MB/$.. I could have looked to long ago though.

eSATA externals would get the job done mighty quick that is if you have SATA on the mobo (or an empty PCI slot to put in a SATA card).. and the enclosures are cheap as well.. they make stackables..

 

[Continuity28]

Well how about something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817121604

It seems like I can just put in hard drives as if they were tapes... only thing is, how would I store the hard drives once outside my computer?

EDIT: And yes, it really looks like 250GB is the best choice. 250GB for $85

 

[greenmaji]

Thanks for double checking my info there Continuity28.. I try to give good info..

Those look mighty stackable to me..

I was thinking external enclosures but that would be pretty easy if you had an open drivebay for them..

 

[Continuity28]

Originally posted by: greenmaji
Thanks for double checking my info there Continuity28.. I try to give good info..

Those look mighty stackable to me..

I was thinking external enclosures but that would be pretty easy if you had an open drivebay for them..

You were saying something more like this right?

Well I'm not sure, I mean I have the free drive bay and plenty of power on my power supply. But it seemed like it would be more of a hassle to change hard drives for the internal enclosure, simply because you only get one hard drive holder right? Whereas the external enclosures I can just stack and forget about them, and plug them in when I need them.

Hmm..

 

[greenmaji]

yes thats an example of what I was thinking about.

I think the hot swap tray's give you the same option though.. you could pull one, put in another, stack them somewere and forget about them..

 

[Continuity28]

Originally posted by: greenmaji
yes thats an example of what I was thinking about.

I think the hot swap tray's give you the same option though.. you could pull one, put in another, stack them somewere and forget about them..

But it looked like you only get one holder, so you'd have to keep putting the actual drives into the holder to slide into the enclosure.

Unless theres a place to get additional holders... If so that might be my preferred option. Because again I'm thinking 4 - 8+ hard drives.

 

[greenmaji]

Im pretty sure they sell enclosures without the rack's. It might not be the same brand but I think Ive seen them for CHEAP.. LOL

edit..
yea they sell them.. it must be getting late Im second guessing myself..

 

[Continuity28]

Awesome, I do see various brands of trays now. I've heavily leaning towards mobile internal enclosure.

All thats left is possible discussion over brands. Does anyone have any set preferences for these? So far it looks like one of the biggest brands for these is KINGWIN, are they trustworthy?

If you can find alternatives let me know, so far I've found Kingwin rack + trays. I already trust Lian Li but I only found racks not trays from them.

Sorry if my terminology is mixed up but I'm using the terms as:
Rack: Sits in the PC at all times
Tray: Surrounds the hard drive and can be taken out of the rack and stacked anywhere

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

This Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B Sata Enclosure is probably the best thing I bought for my machine in quite a while. And I think it might work for what you are doing. At the very least, take a look at it.

EDIT: And about the dependability of DVDz, I agree with you. I will not use DVDz for backup anymore, after having my RAID 5 arraay go down (PSU hiccuped, and lost two drives), and most of my DVD backups were useless. So I will never go through that again if I can avoid it.

 

[Bobthelost]

I use DVDs for backup, if you buy good quality ones and look after them storage wise then they last quite a few years. Of course if you buy cheap POS stuff (as i did to start with) two years down the line they are coasters.

However they aren't really suitable for regular backups, more for a permanent record that gets updated whenever you do a major system change and want to keep a backup copy.

 

[greenmaji]

Originally posted by: Continuity28
Sorry if my terminology is mixed up but I'm using the terms as:
Rack: Sits in the PC at all times
Tray: Surrounds the hard drive and can be taken out of the rack and stacked anywhere

right right..

Ive seen the Kingwin brand on the market forever (like before I knew of lian li) but it was in this sort of product.
I think they are more utilitaian (to get the job done) in quality then TQM (Lian Li has always seemed to be a total quality management type product to me).