[TriLUG] backup presentation questions - was [Trilug-announce] Meeting, Thursday May 13 - Linux Backup Strategies

[Mike Johnson]

Turnpike Man [turnpike420 at yahoo.com] wrote:
> Ben, I can help with 1 example for your first question.  I just bought a new
> Dell PE2600, included in that is a DLT drive.  The internal DLT 8000 drive
> (which does 40/80GB DLT tapes) was $1000.  Each 40/80GB DLT tape was $30, and
> since I have a 4 week rotation (tapes overwritten except last one gets saved
> for a year) so I end up with 19 tapes getting overwritten in rotation, 13-14
> tapes saved for a year, 1 tape at the end of the year forever, so 35 total
> tapes was $1050.

For personal use, the costs can be much lower.

DLT 4000 external drive: $30
DLT 20GB/40GB tapes, 5 ct: $20

This was a drive I picked up at a surplus sale.  It'll actually only do
15GB/30GB, but the 20GB/40GB tapes are easier to find in the used
market.  The tapes are used, but according to the seller, only once.
Really, it doesn't matter unless they've been used hundreds of times.

The original question is a tough one.  The answer is really 'how much do
you want to spend based on how critical your data is'.  I'm not sure a
presenter can answer that for you.  For me, the drive above is used to
back up MP3's so I don't have to rip them again (well, it will be once I
get off my ass and do something about it), so I'm not that concerned
about the used tapes.  The drive will likely work forever.  This is
where another difficulty comes with the question.  A Colorado Jumbo
drive is way cheap, but won't stand up to the continued abuse that a DLT
drive would.  Hell, a DDS (DAT) drive wouldn't survive what a DLT drive
could take.

It's not an easy question.  The answer truly is: 'how much do you want
to spend'.

Mike
-- 
"If life hands you lemons, YOU BLOW THOSE LEMONS TO BITS WITH 
 YOUR LASER CANNONS!" -- Brak

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