Which is better to backup data on terabyte hdd’s or tapes?
I got me hands on a tape drive and was wandering if it was better to backup my stuff on tapes or just buy terabyte hdds
The tape drive is a DAT24 so it’ll only support DDS-3
Tapes are a thing of the past…back when hard drives were very expensive and not very large (unlike the terabyte drive you mentioned). It was unheard of back then to use hard drives just for backup purposes.
Furthermore, tapes have to be rewinded and physically "played" to get the data on it, and to read data off it. This causes a lot of wear & tear.
I remember years ago when I was working in a data center, and we had to retrieve some data for someone…we had to find the tape first, then run special software that knew where the data was, and then we had to wait until the tape was fast forwarded to the right section. After all that, we would hold our breath and prayed that the data integrity would be okay.
That was 10 years ago when the technology was at its best. To do it today, you would probably be using a drive that is very old, and tape media that is very old (unless they still make new ones).
In case there’s any confusion as to what I’m recommending…I’m saying no to tapes and Yes for the hard drive method.
I wouldn’t use a tape drive if someone gave it to me. SLLOOOOWWWW! And EXPENSIVE! And, the tape can break…become brittle and loose data over time. Negative on tape drives!
Use a hard disk. If you want a guarantee, back up to data DVD’s and make multiple copies if the data is that precious.
References :
Tapes are a thing of the past…back when hard drives were very expensive and not very large (unlike the terabyte drive you mentioned). It was unheard of back then to use hard drives just for backup purposes.
Furthermore, tapes have to be rewinded and physically "played" to get the data on it, and to read data off it. This causes a lot of wear & tear.
I remember years ago when I was working in a data center, and we had to retrieve some data for someone…we had to find the tape first, then run special software that knew where the data was, and then we had to wait until the tape was fast forwarded to the right section. After all that, we would hold our breath and prayed that the data integrity would be okay.
That was 10 years ago when the technology was at its best. To do it today, you would probably be using a drive that is very old, and tape media that is very old (unless they still make new ones).
In case there’s any confusion as to what I’m recommending…I’m saying no to tapes and Yes for the hard drive method.
References :
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