Whither the ide-tape module

[Rick Stevens]

Bob McClure Jr wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 28, 2005 at 01:09:08PM -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
>>Bob McClure Jr wrote:
>>
>>>On Mon, Feb 28, 2005 at 11:57:19AM -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Bob McClure Jr wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>On Mon, Feb 28, 2005 at 11:13:31AM -0800, Rick Stevens wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>Bob McClure Jr wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Or do I accelerate my plan to start backing up to DVDs?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>ide-tape is ancient and not particularly reliable.  DVDs are one option.
>>>>>>So are things such as DAT or DLT (if you like tape).
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>I used to be.  Unfortunately, it seemed that I could buy expensive
>>>>>drives that used cheap tapes, or cheap drives that used expensive
>>>>>tapes.  Since the price has come way down on DVD (re)writers and
>>>>>media, I think I know where I'm headed.
>>>>
>>>>Yeah, DVDs are a good idea, except for the extra space needed to build
>>>>the DVD image before burning it.
>>>
>>>
>>>Umm, your next response mentions the low cost of disk drives. (Gotch
>>>last :-)
>>
>>Well, yeah, you can put in another drive just to create the images, but
>>why not just back up to that drive instead?  I do.
> 
> 
> 1. I want to take my backups off-site for safety.

My DLTs and DVDs go into a fire safe.  It's not off-site, but it's
fairly secure.

> 2. I don't want to use removable drives.  One of my clients has had
>    two nearly new 200GB IDE drives in removable carriers go south with
>    a 55-gallon drum of disk errors in the last two weeks.  I suspect
>    he thumped them badly.  He has been using them for backups.
> 
> 
>>Actually, I do "live" backups to firewire (instantly bootable), and due
>>to my "tinkering" (read: shooting myself in the foot occasionally), VERY
>>useful.
> 
> 
> I also want a reasonable history of backups, so that I can retrieve
> that file I hosed two weeks ago.

Which is why the archives go to DLT, then to DVD.  The firewire is only
for "on-the-fly" backups, when I plan to do something evil to the kernel
or a device driver and so I can get back up fast.  If I want an archival
restore, I go pull a tape or DVD out of the safe.

<snip>

>>Yeah.  But since I don't use ide-tape (well, once WAY back when the ice
>>sheets still covered most of North America), I never really noticed its
>>demise.  I fell into DEC's TK70s, then DAT, then DLT (TK70s on
>>steroids).
>>
>>Heck, I even still have an old Kennedy 9-track that works (it last was
>>connected to a RH9 system via an Adaptec 2940).  Newbies freak out when
>>I fire that bad boy up!  Especially because the system used to play a
>>sound file when it saw that drive:
>>
>>    "Greetings, Professor Falkin!  Would you like to play a game?"
>>
>>Ah, memories!  Now, finding 9-track tape at a reasonable cost...that's
>>tough!
> 
> 
> Uh, oh.  I sense an impending trip down memory lane, usually involving
> the competitive, "Oh, yeah?  Well, I still have ...", usually
> including the exchange:
> 
> "We programmed in 1s and 0s."
> 
> "You had 1s?!?!"
> 
> Me, I'm heading for the hills.

Heheheh!  No, I'm not going down RAM road.  I just am loathe to toss out
ancient but working hardware.  There have been a number of times where
people have hunted me down to recover data because I still had the only
functional so-and-so they knew of.  You should see the collection of,
umh, "classic" stuff I have laying about.

About six months ago, a chap I used to work with at JPL sent me two
9-tracks of data he needed.  I got the data off and onto CD for him.
Turned out it was some stress analysis data from Apollo 10 that they
wanted to compare against the failure data for Columbia.  Don't ask me
why 30-odd-year-old data was relevant, but they wanted it and I had the
system with a 9-track and CD burner that he knew worked reliably.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-     There are only 10 kinds of people in the world -- those who    -
-                 understand binary and those who don't              -
----------------------------------------------------------------------