[Gllug] Tape backups

[j.roberts]

Joel Bernstein wrote:

> Disk and tape are not comparable. Nor is anything that breaks when
> dropped once.

It's really not a good idea to drop tapes either. Old formats were 
fairly robust to this: newer ones that pack more data are easily damaged.

> With tape the questions you should be asking are about
> how many years the data is readable / the magnetic coating lasts /
> etc.

Having been using tape for more years than I care to consider, I'd be 
inclined to substitute 'weeks' for years.

I have never understood the logic of backing up to a fundamentally more 
unreliable medium, and one that only reveals its undependability when it 
is urgently required to work.

Of course, backup to tape has saved our bacon on various occasions. 
Backup to disk has done so more often (because we use it more, because 
it is so much easier/quicker to use).

There is no good answer to backup: it just must be done (and verified), 
  somehow.

MeJ
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