Recommendations / pans of Tecmar NS20 TR-5 tape backup?

[Kwad Guy]

I can pick up a Tecmar NS20 TR-5 10/20Gb Travan backup IDE
drive for about $120 shipped, including a TR-5 cartridge.

I'm looking for something to make backups simple. I was
considering buying a couple of those removable IDE
drive sleds and just inserting a nice big IDE drive
at boot for my backups (then storing the drive away
from the machine). What would be the pros/cons of the
TR-5 vs. an IDE drive? Is TR-5 just too much yesterday's
news?

This is for home machines, obviously. We have nice DLT
drives and other goodies at work. Too expensive for my
home...

Kwad

 

[Chief Wahoo]

I tried using IDE hard drives in a removeable case for backups and they do work. But there is one BIG problem. FAT32 partitions have a limit for the maximum size of a file, around 4 GB. My backups would bomb when the file exceed that size so I was forced to do multiple backups by selecting parts of the directory tree (pain in the butt). Tape backups do not have this problem. I ordered the Tecmar NS20 tape system from the same place you are thinking of. This unit has received rave reviews and usually costs much more than the current sale price. BTW, the price for the kit is down to $99. Get it while it's hot!

Chief Wahoo