Most pointless review ever?

[glugglug]

Anyone read THG's tape drive review?

sillyness here

The lowest $/gig for the tapes AFTER you buy the $4000 drive is $0.89/gig

THATS THE SAME AS A 120GB HARD DRIVE!

Adapters to hot swap the HD are cheaper than a tape drive.
The HD 4-15x faster (depending which tape drive)
The data stays on a hard drive more reliably than on a tape in almost any storage environment (except a moving/vibrating one)

And the media is cheaper to just buy another drive

So why would anyone buy a tape drive nowadays?

 

[mroptimistic]

yeah im still waiting for someone to tell me the benefits of tape as well, i hear it mentioned on occasion, but dont see the point.

 

[Peter]

Running cost are low. You typically have LOTS of media for the one expensive tape drive you buy, and the things are used for looooong times - magnifying the running cost over the initial purchase. (This btw is one factor that THG's review blatantly misses, tape durability. DAT tape media wear out ten times faster than ADR for example.)

Just look at how many plugging cycles a hot swap drive bay is designed to survive (in the low dozens typically), and you'll understand where the actual cost benefit comes from. Besides, tapes are much less susceptible to damage while in storage than "backup" HDDs.

People in serious IT aren't stupid, and not being prehistoric either. Tape drives do make sense where people really care for their data. Remember, backup is for peace of mind - _restore_ is where the real solutions show their strength.

 

[glugglug]

Originally posted by: Peter
Besides, tapes are much less susceptible to damage while in storage than "backup" HDDs.

I don't buy this. Tapes are less susceptible to damage while being transported to/from storage, but while in storage, tapes stretch/shrink from temperature variation, their magnetic domains decay faster, and they are more susceptible to damage from high humidity.

 

[Peter]

You store your stuff where? Seriously, magnetic decay is not a problem. This is backup, not archiving. Different thing. HDDs do suffer much more from being bumped around in removable use, connectors wear out really quickly (as I said before), and if you ever forget to watch for steep temperature ramps (like when plugging a cold HDD into a hot server), it's history. This doesn't happen to tapes.

Maybe YOU don't buy this. People who do server maintenance and administration professionally do. If not by learning, then by trial and expensive failure.

 

[mcveigh]

for enterprise users backups aren't something that runs once a week and somebody locks in a safe.
a HD can be a great backup for a home or small business user, but when you want incremental backups stored off site the costs can add up

 

[Peter]

Those HDD backup fans are missing one major point: One backup set is no backup set. What do you have if your main HDD dies DURING backup? Right. Nothing. And when do HDDs usually die? Right. When they get used heavily. Like when copying files ... meaning you need two backup drives. What happens when your last backup set already contained the error you're trying to recover from (like viruses, screwed up databases, or deleted files) or is physically unusable? See, you need older backup sets to step back to when the latest one doesn't cut it. Come to think of it, anything below at least three backup sets on independent media (!) doesn't make sense.

Then, plain IDE isn't hot plug capable technology. Want to shutdown your machine every time you want to back it up or restore something (it happens several times a day in office networks - users often delete stuff they desperately want back a week later!)? No? So either use a special hot plug IDE controller card combined with hot plug drive bays, or use SCA drive bay SCSI technology.

Now do the math again. Just calculate initial cost of purchase. HDD backup looks bad here already. And it gets worse when running costs start coming in.

 

[QueBert]

Interesting thread, I haven't had a tape drive since my Tecmar (120 meg whopper!) days. Do they make any moderatly priced units for home users. I don't need 120 gig DSS3 DAT (or whatever they got now hehe) I would like something that can back my system up, 80 gigs (when full) and I'm too lazy to set up a raid 1. Last tape I looked at eas a 40 gig sony one, scsi and I think DDS or DSS3. It was 1,000 bucks, seems a bit pricey but maybe if I want to get tape I'm stuck paying threw the nose.

 

[Peter]

DAT drives are extremely fragile, and the tapes don't last long. Current best pick for budget storage with reasonable capacities are the Onstream ADR drives. Capacities available are 15, 30 and 60 GB (twice that with typical compression rate), in IDE, SCSI, USB or FireWire, internal and external models (not IDE). The SCSI and FW models are faster than the IDE and USB, that's why they're more expensive.

Recently replaced my Tecmar NS8 Travan with 15/30 GB SCSI model here, extremely happy with it - and so are those people I gave other models, 15/30 GB IDE mostly (300 euros here). The 30/60 GB IDE drive goes for around 600 euros (including server grade backup software and one tape). USD prices usually are lower.