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BigV · 05-25-2007, 11:14 AM

Then you're going to make things harder....

How much data do you want to "back up"? If you're not going to make a simple flat copy of your data and you want a "real" backup, you have to put it somewhere. It seems reasonable that if you're backing up a hard drive that another hard drive would be big enough to hold all the data. It has to go somewhere, right? Where will you store it? Your choices are limited and you've just disqualified the easiest, best, cheapest, simplest, most reliable, most useful option. Now that you're feeling bad, look at your options:

Tape drive. Still have to buy some machine that goes ping, plus media. Those tapes are expensive, a hassle, and you'll likely part with considerable $$ to get the capacity you're needing.

CD-Rs. Ok, you probably have a writeable cd in your machine already. Ok, now you need the media. A cd holds about 2/3 of a gigabyte, so if you have a 60 Gb hard drive, modest not mongo, you could need as many as 100 cds. Lets be fair, say your drive is only half full. 50 cds. And you have to feed each one into your system and they all have to work. You're building a chain of fifty links. One fails, the chain fails. If you have any experience with burning cds, you'd know that fifty in a row without a mistake is a longshot. What a hassle. Then, after all that work, when your system needs a new backup, fifty more cds.

Let's just point and laugh at those who imagine any other removable *coughfloppydiskcough* media. Non starter.

So, Cloud, what will you write your backup to? Water vapor suspended in our sheltering sky? mbpark is right. Get an external hd. You won't be sorry.

05-25-2007, 11:14 AM	#8
BigV Goon Squad Leader Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 27,063	Then you're going to make things harder.... How much data do you want to "back up"? If you're not going to make a simple flat copy of your data and you want a "real" backup, you have to put it somewhere. It seems reasonable that if you're backing up a hard drive that another hard drive would be big enough to hold all the data. It has to go somewhere, right? Where will you store it? Your choices are limited and you've just disqualified the easiest, best, cheapest, simplest, most reliable, most useful option. Now that you're feeling bad, look at your options: Tape drive. Still have to buy some machine that goes ping, plus media. Those tapes are expensive, a hassle, and you'll likely part with considerable $$ to get the capacity you're needing. CD-Rs. Ok, you probably have a writeable cd in your machine already. Ok, now you need the media. A cd holds about 2/3 of a gigabyte, so if you have a 60 Gb hard drive, modest not mongo, you could need as many as 100 cds. Lets be fair, say your drive is only half full. 50 cds. And you have to feed each one into your system and they all have to work. You're building a chain of fifty links. One fails, the chain fails. If you have any experience with burning cds, you'd know that fifty in a row without a mistake is a longshot. What a hassle. Then, after all that work, when your system needs a new backup, fifty more cds. Let's just point and laugh at those who imagine any other removable coughfloppydiskcough media. Non starter. So, Cloud, what will you write your backup to? Water vapor suspended in our sheltering sky? mbpark is right. Get an external hd. You won't be sorry. __________________ Be Just and Fear Not.