[geeks] tape backup, revisited

[Joshua Boyd]

On Jun 16, 2007, at 8:54 PM, Doug McLaren wrote:

> On Sat, Jun 16, 2007 at 02:48:34PM -0500, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
>
> | >> I just posted about the Quantum GoVault, but I misread the  
> media cost.
> | >> It's $104 each, not $14 like I thought.  Damn, I knew it was  
> too good to
> | >> be true.
> | >
> | > You can *almost* buy 500G SATA drives for $104 nowdays.
> |
> | Funny how things keep repeating.  We're nearly back to the age of  
> using
> | removable disk packs for near-line storage.
>
> What do you mean *almost* ?  We've been there for years.
>
> Pay a little extra for a USB enclosure for that drive, and you've got
> an external backup solution that's really fast, gives random access,
> and doesn't require $1000+ tape drives.  If you're on a budget, you
> can skip the USB enclosure, but it's convenient to not be pulling
> drives out of enclosures.
>
> And the media is cheaper than anything I'm aware of short of DVD-Rs
> (and 4.5 GB/pop is hard to deal with.)  Are there *any* tape solutions
> where you can get 500 GB of media for $110?

I was trying to make a go of using a 2.5" laptop drive in a USB case,  
but it died after a few trips without being dropped a single time.

I also tried using a 3.5" drive in a USB case for a slightly less  
portable drive.  I believe I've carried it 4 times, otherwise it  
mostly just sits in one place, and it also has problems.

It is enough to pretty well put me off of using USB drives for  
backups or portable storage.  I wish I could get something other than  
DDS in the space of a CD-ROM.  Either that or come across a really  
cheap (preferably free) computer that will take an internal DLT or  
LTO drive and be quiet.