[PLUG] advice on buying a cheap DAT Drive

[Keith Morse]

On Sun, 13 Jul 2003, Jon Ladwig wrote:

> I know very little about tape back-up; just thought
> it would be useful to learn a bit more. Maybe backup
> /homes and /var/www/html. 
> 
> Any Linux gotcha's I should know about?
> 
> I'm hoping I can pick up an old internal 4mm
> unit- DDS or DDS-1 or DDS-2. Does around $25 sound
> reasonable for one of those? Brands to avoid?
> 

I'll leave the software side to the many experts who are exponentially 
smarter than me for all things tar, shell, ssh, and dd.

I would make one recommendation.  Please make sure that the DDS2 format is 
sufficient for your needs.  2/4gb may seem okay on the face of it, but 
that capacity can be easily surpassed by future needs.   I'd expect you to 
be able to find a DDS3 (12/24 gb) for $150 or so.  But then again, I 
haven't looked lately so I may be talking out my ass.  Heck for the cost 
of the drives and media, DVD +R/+RW seems to be shaping up as the 
defacto standard for DVD discs and another method for backup.  Might want 
to check this out.