Re: backup Iomega vs. ?

[Randy Whittle <whittle@usc.edu>]

At 03:54 PM 10/14/96 -0700, Marc Weidenbaum wrote:
>What do you all use for harddrive backup, in particular 701 users? 
>
>I was looking at this Iomega Ditto 800. 
>
>Any feedback (experience with the Iomega, alternates) would be
>appreciated.

        An HP SCSI DAT drive.

        I like it lots.  :-)

        I don't think you'd have much to complain about with the Iomega
though.  My only beef with backups in general is that I want 'em big enough
to do a full backup and preferably some incrementals without having to
change the tape.  With the size of Hard Drives these days, its tough to do
that with a tape that only holds 400 MB raw (that 800 MB stuff is
fantasy--you'll never see that on a tape unless the data is highly
compressable, which is unlikely.  Figure on about 1.5x compresson on
tape--so that 400 MB will get aroun 600 MB on it).

        DAT, on the other hand, while it holds as much as 4 GB raw
(DDS2--mine's just DDS which holds 2 GB raw), is much more expensive for the
drive, but cheaper on the tapes.  My drive cost about $700+ when I got it
new a couple years ago (I got a great deal--but I think you can buy these
new for around this price today), but the tapes can be had for $8 a piece
(compare that to $30 for a Travan tape for your Iomega).  Since I rotate
tapes and keep archives up to a year beforehand, tape price is a
not-to-be-ignored factor, making the cost of the drive somewhat moderated.

-------
Randy Whittle		rwhittle@usa.net
USC Graduate School of Business    http://www-scf.usc.edu/~whittle
  "If you've been in the game for 30 minutes and still don't know who
is the patsy...*YOU* are the patsy."      - Warren Buffet