Tape backup vs external hard drive

[Pandamonium]

I want a reliable backup for personal use. I'll be honest: I'm a packrat (an organized one though), so I'm looking at about 500GB of data right now, more after I finish moving my music collection into a lossless format. The idea is that I will centralize all my data (right now it's across ~8 physical disks in 4 machines.) In the process, I'll lose some redundant files, and I want to make up for it by centralizing to a RAID5 array with some form of backup. I want to backup my old documents (from elementary/middle/high school/college) and multimedia collection. I only need to maintain 2 identical backups at a time. (2 because I'm anal retentive) I will perform backups at least once every six months.

Here's what I've come up with.

Tape Pros
- Tape backup seems to have the conglomerate geek factor going for it.
- I could potentially backup to tape and store tapes in a safety lock box or something.
- Lots of automation options
- Tapes seem to be more "bulletproof" than HDDs
Tape Cons
- Expensive initial cost
- Expensive cost of maintenance (with new tapes for each backup and all)
- Speed
- Learning curve

HDD Pros
- Simpler solution
- Lower initial costs
- Lower costs of maintenance
- Data transfer speeds, especially if I use eSATA
HDD Cons
- Limited automation options
- Uses the same technology as my live storage

Am I missing something?

 

[RebateMonger]

Have you actually PRICED tape drives and tapes that hold over 100GB of data?

For $300, you can have a pair of external hard disk drives, each of which will hold all of your data. You can do a backup in a single step to a single drive.

A suitable tape drive is going to be a couple Grand. Tapes are $100 each. And you won't be able to put everything on a single tape, so you'll have to swap them out a couple of times to do a single backup.

For me and my clients, that's usually reason enough to choose a hard-disk-based backup when there's lots of data involved and limited funds.

 

[Pandamonium]

I have. The 60/120 (IIRC) and up drives are well out of my price range. 40/80 and 20/40 used are reasonable. I only want two sets of tapes for my data because I don't anticipate altering about 90% of the data. I just want to be able to access it on occasion and be able to reconstruct it in the event of a drive failure.

 

[oynaz]

The HDD option is much simpler and cheaper.

 

[jlbenedict]

You are in the same dilemna I was in a while back. I seriously thought about a tape drive solution. Honestly, for anything with a reasonable amount of storage capacity, its beyond what my bank account can afford. I would absolutely love to be able to go the tape drive route, but realistically, it probably will not happen.

As others have stated, hard drives are simplier and cheaper.. But what hasn't been mentioned is the fact that at any given time, a hard drive can go to $hit. Hard drives go bad.. more often than tapes.

I have my data stored on an external hard drive, in addition, all data is backed up to dvd-rw every month. Yeah.. its a alot of dvd-rw's, but its gives me a little more peace of mind knowing my data is somewhat safe. 🙂

 

[SuperNaruto]

If you need daily full archives, you need tape,

if you're only going to get 2 backups, ie 2 full hdd backup, then you just get the drives.

i got huge amount of data, i got a sdlt 320 for home with a dlt 40/80

 

[corkyg]

For data archiving, tape is a good choice. But for system back up and software backup, the HDD is the better choice. Tape always requires restoration. A cloned drive merely requires a cable change.

If I had a business mission involving both requirements, I would use both methods.

 

[pkme2]

If you're using mobile external racks, HDDs fit the bill. You can move data from one site to another easily. You can store and remove. Much cheaper in the long run as compared to tape. Check into it.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: jlbenedict
I have my data stored on an external hard drive, in addition, all data is backed up to dvd-rw every month. Yeah.. its a alot of dvd-rw's, but its gives me a little more peace of mind knowing my data is somewhat safe. 🙂

I always recommend using at least two (preferably more) hard drives for backup. One is connected to the PC and used for daily backups. The others are stored offsite, if feasible.

Hard drives certainly do fail, sometimes without warning. As do tapes, CDRW, and DVDRW. For reliability, I'd rank them:
Best: Tape
2nd Best: Hard Drive
3rd Best: CDRW
4th Best: DVDRW

All of these media are useful as long as you verify the backups when you make them.