Phil Mendelsohn wrote: > On 22 May 2001, Jon Schewe wrote: > > > I found a place I can get this tape drive from for $180, however it's got a > > cracked loader tray that'll probably cost $200 to fix. > > Bummer. I'd look for a better one, unless it's some hella tape drive. I would look for something smaller then. A 7 tape autoloader seems to be kinda overkill. 20GB? Does that include OS or is that just storage capacity? If your OS goes bad I would recomend reinstall instead of pulling it from backup. I would seriously look at some other technologies. DLT is really nice and can get 40-80 GB per tape depending on the drive. I personally use DLT and think they are very nice. They may be more expensive but they are more reliable than cassette like tapes simply because of the design. I have no idea what the comparison is between them on long term storage and shock resistance -- stuff like that -- but I have used them for a couple of years and never had one go bad or get corrupted. For something as small as that you could just get a CD-RW and pick and choose what you want to backup. Short answer - Don't go for it man. Get a cheaper one that fits your needs better. > > What do you all think of using tape vs hard drives for backup? > > Who uses hard drives? I'd put a smiley, but actually I want to know! I've heard of people using HD instead of Tape but not as the only backup. Just as a primary backup with tape as a secondary long term storage. HD are less reliable but much faster for restoring. sim