🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <706097853wnr@wilsoni.demon.co.uk>
           ian@wilsoni.demon.co.uk "Ian Wilson" writes:

> In article: <3179fab1.2451028@news.demon.co.uk>  
> matt@tdraft.demon.co.uk (Matt West) writes:
> > 
> > I have seen an advert for the Danmere Backer that backs your hard 
> > disk onto VHS tape through a video recorder.  For only 35ukp + VAT, 
> > this card will backup 9MB per minute and will allow you to store 
> > up to 1.5GB on a VHS video tape.
> > 
[.............................]
 >
> > > I have seen an advert. in the February Computer Shopper (Page 572) 
> > > for the Danmere Backer PC hard disk back-up system which backs up 
> > > to your video player on an ordinary video tape at 9 Megabytes per 
> > > minute and looks like it is ideal for large hard drives.
> > >
> > > They are only 42.45UKP inclusive & on the face of it look good 
> > > value for money when compared to tape streamers.
> > >
> > > Has anyone tried one of these devices out, and are they any good?
> >
> > Not this again - I've tried one out, and it worked. However, there
> > are some things you should know.
> >
> > a) if you ask the salesperson, they will say that all cables are 
> >    included  - they're not. You will need to buy two cables, 
> >    probably BNC to phono, to allow you to connect the card to the 
> >    VIDEO IN and VIDEO OUT sockets on your VCR. Make sure that the 
> >    leads are long enough to get to the VCR or use a spare VCR if 
> >    you have one.
> >
> > b) The card and attached software cannot be used to back up network
> >     drives.  The software does not recognise any drives except those
> >     physically on the machine. Of course, you could always copy 
> >     stuff over from network drives onto one of your drives and back 
> >     it up from there.
> >
> > c) There is no software control of the VCR - you have to be there to
> >    press the REC button. Think of it as backing up onto a very large
> >    audio cassette.
> >
> > On the plus side, the software works well, with a particularly nice
> > Verify function which allows you to see whether your buffer and 
> > error checking levels are set correctly. There are several levels 
> > of compression and the default is low, so you won't get 1.5 Gig 
> > unless you explicitly set the software to use high compression. 
> > You should also be aware that the performance is dependent upon the 
> > state of the VCR - if it's completely clapped out then you won't get
> > good backups.
> >
> > To summarise; if you only want to do complete drive backups, you 
> > have a large local hard disk, a spare VCR and some space on your 
> > desk, definitely try it. If you want to backup and restore single 
> > files, do unattended backups or network backups, don't bother.
> >

I have a Russian equivalent of backer called Arvid, it will.....
back up over a network drive, I know because I've done it, back up and restore individual files or directories, I know because I've done it,
and it will do it all automatically via the infra-red input,once you have selected the files to backup or restore! It will also identify the infra-red
commands and then save them in a file particular to your VCR. 

I don't know how this relates to the Backer system but all I can say is
that the system I have is brilliant, despite it running in DOS.

Regards

- 
Paul