[ILUG] Backup media

[Conor Wynne]

On 5 Feb 2008, at 17:28, Pádraig Brady wrote:

> Tony Groves wrote:
>> Greetings all.
>>
>> I'm looking to replace an old tape drive on a Debian Etch server  
>> and am
>> wondering what to replace it with. About 10GB needs to be backed-up
>> every two weeks or so, and there would be ten or so volumes, so that
>> each would be overwritten after 6 months.
>
> If you don't require off site storage, just attach
> another disk and create snapshots to it using something
> like rdiff-backup or dirvish. What's the chances that
> both disks fail at the same time?
> http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/reliability_calculator/
>
> If you do need offsite storage, then USB sticks aren't
> a bad solution I suppose, but be aware that quality varies a lot.
> I would use USB drives instead:
> http://www.pixelbeat.org/systems/usb_backup/
>
>> I'm wondering about USB memory sticks; apparently 16GB sticks are
>> available now, which would be big enough, but are they reliable  
>> enough?
>> And am I right to assume they can be formatted with ext3 or other
>> permissions-aware FS?
>
> yes they're just block devices.
>
>> Or does anybody have other suggestions? Is tape still king?
>
> No, not for about 20 years now

King, no. but great for long term storage -- i.e.: far cheaper than  
disks.
For personal use, i would use a USB HDD, rather than a usbkey.
Like I use *ahem* for my own backup.

I wouldn't mind, but I have a few tape drives floating around, like  
loads of them.
SCSI, IDE (10/20GB), more SCSI. All working fine as well. Come to  
think of it, do I owe you money (Niall) for tapes? Anyone interested  
in some SCSI Tape drives, DDS3's. Will throw in a controller as well.  
Mail me off list if yer interested.

Regards
Conor