On Oct 30, 10:52am, Greg A. Woods wrote:
} [ On Fri, October 30, 1998 at 02:49:59 (-0800), John Nemeth wrote: ]
} >
} >      Tape, most definitely.  That is the most economical and reliable
} > media on which to do backups.  Nothing else really makes sense.
} 
} Reliability is highly dependent on the kind of tape and the way in which
} you use it (write once or re-write many times).  No helical scan or

     You will note that I didn't get into specifics.  Obviously, if
you do something dumb like use a QIC-40 floppy tape drive, or use
non-data tape (8mm video tape), then you're going to get what you
deserve.

} multi-track tape has a truely long life, even by the specifications
} compared to straight linear recording tape.  Tape cartridges with lots

     The only modern thing I know that is straight linear is the DLT.

} of moving parts also have an often drastically limited life in terms of
} rewrites.  Shelf life may also be a concern, and some tape technologies
} have an even lower specified shelf life than CD ROM (DLT and SLR/MLR

     Depending on who you believe, CD-R has a shelf life of 100+
years.  However, it is much too expensive and slow to be used for
backup purposes.

} I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the boardrooms of places like
} Tandberg and Quantum and Exabyte to see how and why they make decisions
} about what products and technologies to focus on.  I note with extreme

     This is easy, whatever they can convince the gullible public to
buy and makes them the most money.

} interest that although Tandberg has been advertising their MLR line a

     I haven't heard about MLR, but I've always liked Tandberg, so
I'll check it out.  Thanks for the tip.  Tandberg makes nice drives,
but they haven't been keeping up with the times.  Nowadays, I tend to
go with DAT or DLT.

}-- End of excerpt from Greg A. Woods