Re: [PLUG] CD-R(W) backup tools?

["Tracy Nelson" <tnelson@fast.net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael W. Ryan <mryan@netaxs.com>
Date: Saturday, August 19, 2000 14:42


|On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, Nathan Thompson wrote:
|I think I have to agree with Nate on this one.  While writable CDs aren't
|as durable as "real" CDs, they do have a good shelf life as long as, as
|Nate said, you store them right (out of direct sunlight, etc.).  My
|*impression* is that tapes are less reliable.  The benefit of tape is
|that a) it's reusable and b) it can store more.


Seriously, who cares about shelf life for backups?  If it lasts for a year,
that's good enough.  If you're *archiving* data, that's different, but I
always thought backups were to protect yourself against catastrophic media
failure.

Tapes vary quite a bit on reliability.  I back up to an 8mm drive right now,
and I've had three media failures in ~5 years.  OTOH, I recently had the
opportunity to copy a 9-track I made back in 1983, and tar read it just
fine.

Cheers!
-- Tracy Nelson


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