Physical backups

[Ken L]

I've been backing up my data to an external HDD for a while.

When I'm not actually doing the backups, the drive lives in another house to minimise the risk of data loss through fire, flood etc.

I'm now seriously thinking about making physical (rather than magnetic) backups onto DVD every 12 months or so as an extra precaution and keeping that in a third location.

 

I'm new to this DVD game, only having got the DVD writter last week so are there any discs that are particularly suitable for archiving data and any advantages/disadvantages to using the DVD+R/-R format - the machine does both ?

[Tog]

http://www.techworld.com/storage/features/...?featureid=2159

I backed up loads of stuff to 'bullet proof' CD about 6 years ago, when I looked at them recently most were duff! (and these were 'brand name' CD's) and I even dug out the old CD drive they were burnt in to see if that would work - nope they had 'faded'.

Loads of info on how poor CD & DVD is as a long term backup system, DAT seems to be the prefered medium.

[corydoras]

...DAT seems to be the prefered medium.

I am an IT professional. This sort of thing is my bread and butter (just like Newt). I would not trust any really important data to DAT. I've lost count of the folks I have seen dutifully backing up onto DAT every night, but having a nightmare when they can't restore afterwords.

 

I keep all my really important stuff on DLT. You should be able to get a DLT 40/80 drive for £200 or less on ebay. DLT tapes can be a bit pricey, but well worth it if you want a long term archive. The problem with dat is that it was never really meant to be used in IT, DLT was designed for data storage.

Edited August 11, 2006 by corydoras

[kempo]

I've been backing up my data to an external HDD for a while.

When I'm not actually doing the backups, the drive lives in another house to minimise the risk of data loss through fire, flood etc.

I'm now seriously thinking about making physical (rather than magnetic) backups onto DVD every 12 months or so as an extra precaution and keeping that in a third location.

 

I'm new to this DVD game, only having got the DVD writter last week so are there any discs that are particularly suitable for archiving data and any advantages/disadvantages to using the DVD+R/-R format - the machine does both ?

 

a tape drive will out last a dvd or cd 10 fold, the cd's and dvd's were only introduced so people would have to re-purchase there disks after about 12 years or so, and that is if you look after them properly.

tape is much better.

do a search on cd/dvd life expectancies you will be surprised.

 

ps: dont get rid of your old videos as they will be worth a mint in years to come, mark my words.

Edited August 11, 2006 by kempo

[corydoras]

...dont get rid of your old videos as they will be worth a mint in years to come, mark my words.

Your probably right. I have a mate who has hundreds of movies on Betamax. You need to take your tapes out the box and give them a play or at least a ffwd/rewind or they might 'stick' and then they are worthless.

[melpen]

When backing up you really need to backup the full operating system as well as all your data, that way if you have a hardrive failure to reload takes hours instead of days.

 

Backing up to DVD is ok, but most backup programmes use ISO therefore you cannot restore individual data files.

 

Using DAT you can actually restore individual files if needed.

 

DAT is a SCSI format which means you need a SCSI card total cost around £400 but it is extremly fast, there are IDE backup drives available, but are more difficult to setup for £150 & if speed is not required.

 

If you require more infomation let me know.

[corydoras]

When backing up you really need to backup the full operating system as well as all your data, that way if you have a hardrive failure to reload takes hours instead of days.

 

Backing up to DVD is ok, but most backup programmes use ISO therefore you cannot restore individual data files.

 

Using DAT you can actually restore individual files if needed.

 

DAT is a SCSI format which means you need a SCSI card total cost around £400 but it is extremly fast, there are IDE backup drives available, but are more difficult to setup for £150 & if speed is not required.

 

If you require more infomation let me know.

I have to disagree. I never back up the OS. Professionals seldom do. If you have a complete crash its just as quick to re-install XP. You can restore individual files from an ISO file. You can use software like ISO Buster, or you can write the ISO image to a CD or DVD. WinRar also reads ISO image files. Whilst its true that you will need a SCSI card but it will not cost anywhere near £400. You could get a second hand DLT 40/80 from ebay, a new scisi card from dabs.com, some tapes, again from ebay and the scsi cables cables and terminators from ebay for less than £400

 

Don't touch DAT. DAT stands for Digital Audio Tape. It was designed for use in recording studios to replace reel to reel and cassete formats, not for long term archiving of computer data.

Edited August 15, 2006 by corydoras

[kempo]

I have to disagree. I never back up the OS. Professionals seldom do. If you have a complete crash its just as quick to re-install XP. You can restore individual files from an ISO file. You can use software like ISO Buster, or you can write the ISO image to a CD or DVD. WinRar also reads ISO image files. Whilst its true that you will need a SCSI card but it will not cost anywhere near £400 quid. You could get a second hand DLT 40/80 from ebay, a new scisi card from dabs.com, some tapes again from ebay and the scsi cables cables and terminators from ebay for less than £400

 

Don't touch DAT. DAT stands for Digital Audio Tape. It was designed for use in recording studios to replace reel to reel and cassete formats, not for long term archiving of computer data.

 

 

tape will out last cd rom disc's.

 

http://www.gcn.com/print/23_5/25166-1.html

 

http://www.clir.org/PUBS/reports/pub54/4life_expectancy.html

Edited August 14, 2006 by kempo

[corydoras]

tape will out last cd rom disc's.

No arguing with that in principle, its just that DAT is crap.

One format nobody has mentioned is DVD-RAM. This has a format created for archiving. It comes in 4.7GB and 9.4GB flavours.

Edited August 15, 2006 by corydoras

[Steve Walker]

I have to disagree. I never back up the OS. Professionals seldom do. If you have a complete crash its just as quick to re-install XP.

 

True, though it is fairly common practice to restore the OS from a ghosted image of a clean machine, which is kind of the opposite; an OS backup with no data. I've never known anyone to attempt a mixed backup of OS and data, though. That's just mad.

 

In any case, a backup of system files is in many cases next to useless without the correct configuration in the registry (and the GAC for shared .NET assemblies) needed to make them work.