🚀 go-pugleaf

"DL" == David Lesher <wb8foz@netcom.com> writes:

DL> alan@clark.net (Alan McConnell) writes:
>> A friend recently told me I should "back up my system".  I got him
>> to first spell the word, then he explained the concept, and now I'm
>> sold on the idea that this is something I should do<g>.  So I'm
>> looking for advice on tape drives and tapes; I want to know what
>> works and what is cheap, also whether a tape-drive in a bay, or
>> external, thru /dev/lp0, is better(that last clause is faulty, but
>> since I'm using vi I'll let it go<g>)

DL> Buy a used QIC150 drive & plug it into your SCSI controller.
DL> Przemek Klosowski posted places he'd bought 'em for ~$100.

I've got one on an old Linux 386DX/33 (at home) that I never use any
more.  (The box still runs 0.99.12!)

Offers?  I paid just over $200 for it (used) about two years ago, and
have barely used it myself (made maybe half a dozen backups with it
without any problems).  ~$100 seems like a fair enough ballpark price.

DL> Tapes cost $5.00 or so at hamfests. 

I've got a stack of well over a dozen of these (all used by others here
at work--I've no knowledge as to their quality).  Offers?

DL> Cheap, fast, reliable.

Yup, though the QIC150 drives aren't as "smart" as some others and
cannot perform certain specific, low-level, operations.  They work fine
for backups though (I use GNU tar).

--Up.

-- 
Jeff Uphoff - systems/network admin.  |  juphoff@nrao.edu
National Radio Astronomy Observatory  |  jeff.uphoff@linux.org
Charlottesville, VA, USA              |  http://linux.nrao.edu/~juphoff/