On Fri, Oct 26, 2001 at 09:14:14AM +0200, Lourens Steenkamp wrote:

On Sat, 27 Oct 2001 15:02:53 +0200 Hello Cliff from Lourens:

" Hello, " I am looking at the feasibility of various backup " devices for use with Linux. It would prefereably " work out of the box with Linux. " " I have eliminated ZIP drives, they are ridiculously " over-priced (at least in Holland) and 250 MB is not " big enough. " I have CD/RW and could use that I suppose but it's " a bit of a fiddle. " Dat would be ok, but the devices are expensive, " although at tapes are cheap. " DLT woud be out of my price range, and way over-kill. " " Any other ideas or devices ? " I have both spare SCSI and USB capacity on one of " my networked systems. And parallel port capacity on " all of them. I would rather not look at IDE devices " (this is more to do with what I do with my systems " than anything philosophical). " " What capacity I hear you cry ! Say around 1gig+, " compressed. " " And don't suggest LS120 :) "

"You and me both", for home use I imagine. Currently, I use a removeable IDE hdd because hdd's are so cheap I am told that LG have just released an "affordable" combination DVD/CD writer in this country and I am going to look at their site for some more info. I believe that the model number is DAD-8020B. http://www.lge.com/c_product/catalog/product_information.jsp?mdl_pfx=4CDES&mdl_cod=DAD-8020B&mdl_mak=1&navigation=1,18,4

Well it is not exactly for my use alone, I will be on-line 24/7 in a few months and several people will be using my network (and helping pay a bit towards the hardware on it I hope!) so I need to do something a bit less ad-hoc than what I do now. Mmm, I looked at the price of DVD writers the other day, not enough loose change in my pocket unfortunately. I really do not want an IDE solution. -- Regards Cliff

Sony makes a DDS3 SCSI drive for $660. Tapes are $10 a piece. SCSI TR5 drives are $400, tapes are $3-$40 a piece. Your Prices May Vary (all prices in USD). Jeffrey Quoting Robert C. Paulsen Jr. :

On Sat, Oct 27, 2001 at 01:51:30PM -0500, Jeffrey Taylor wrote:

...

Seagate and HP both make TR5 (AKA NS20) drives, 200USD for IDE and 400USD for SCSI. These hold 10GB (20GB compressed). There are also TR4 and smaller drives with smaller, multi-gigabyte capacities. The stock IDE tape driver broke somewhere around 2.2.9 for the NS20 drives. The IDE SCSI emulation works, though it gives error messages.

HTH, Jeffrey

Quoting Cliff Sarginson :

...

Hello, I am looking at the feasibility of various backup devices for use with Linux. It would prefereably work out of the box with Linux.

I have eliminated ZIP drives, they are ridiculously over-priced (at least in Holland) and 250 MB is not big enough. I have CD/RW and could use that I suppose but it's a bit of a fiddle. Dat would be ok, but the devices are expensive, although at tapes are cheap. DLT woud be out of my price range, and way over-kill.

Any other ideas or devices ? I have both spare SCSI and USB capacity on one of my networked systems. And parallel port capacity on all of them. I would rather not look at IDE devices (this is more to do with what I do with my systems than anything philosophical).

What capacity I hear you cry ! Say around 1gig+, compressed.

And don't suggest LS120 :)

I use a DDS3 by Sony. Forget how much I paid for it. Got it about a year ago.

These should be getting reasonably cheap since they are far from cutting edge technology nowadays.

I had an NS20 before my Sony SDT-9000 DDS3. In comparison, the DDS3 is faster and holds more data. It has read-behind write (so you don't need a separate verify pass). It has hardware compression which simplifies things. And, so far, it hasn't broken, like my NS20 did -- once under warrantee and then shortly after the warrantee expired.

Note: I don't think you will find 1gig nearly big enough. I need over 4gig to do a full backup, which I do weekly. Six days a week I do differential backups which take much less space. With DDS3 I can get a weeks worth of backups on one tape with plenty of room to spare. its capacity (12gig native, 24gig compressed) is just short of holding 2 weeks' backups.

-- I don't do Windows and I don't come to work before nine. -- Johnny Paycheck

On Sat, Oct 27, 2001 at 03:17:38PM -0500, Robert C. Paulsen Jr. wrote:

On Sat, Oct 27, 2001 at 02:33:18PM -0500, Jeffrey Taylor wrote:

...

Sony makes a DDS3 SCSI drive for $660. Tapes are $10 a piece. SCSI TR5 drives are $400, tapes are $3-$40 a piece. Your Prices May Vary (all prices in USD).

www.pricewatch.com shows Sony SDT-9000 DDS3 for $369 + shipping.

Thanks for all the replies. The American prices sound high (generally I get really miffed when I see how much less most things technological cost in the US) so god knows what they will be like in Holland, 19% tax on all such things. I will do some googling... -- Regards Cliff

Quoting Joe Zien : [snip]

I have installed a removable drive bay on my linux system as hdb. The new drive is installed in a caddy which is removable from the front. Ide drives and the removable frame are so inexpensive this is the way to go. The frame and caddy cost about $30. You have to be careful to get a frame to match Ultra ATA/66 or Ultra ATA/100.

Is it hot swapable? -- I don't do Windows and I don't come to work before nine. -- Johnny Paycheck