Odd Magnetic Media question

From: healyzh_at_aracnet.com <(healyzh_at_aracnet.com)>
Date: Thu Mar 30 17:25:23 2000

> I think the 2 year is for reasonable useage.

Actually the 2 year number is from a government study that I don't believe
is still online :^( It was refering to writing the data to tape and then
sticking the tape in a vault. In other words an archive tape. They found
8mm was good for 2 years, while DLT and 9-Track tapes were good for 10
years.

> New tapes should last for 30 to 40 years at least
> with good storage. Tapes with data may not fare as well.

Hmmm, somehow I've got my doubts on them being good for that long, though
I've seen downright ancient 9-Track tapes used when I was working at a
Mainframe site.

My general suspicion is that they're good, and that the 2 year figure is for
the data on the tape, and that if one was to write over the tape again, that
it would probably be good for another two years.

> Use short length tapes for long term storage and
> you should get more years than you'll live.
> Always make backups of backups and store in a
> different location.
> Dwight
>

Actually I've used CD-R for archives for the last 2-3 years. Though even
they should be refreshed probably every 5-10 years.

I'm just looking at finally getting my act together and setting up automated
backups on my Home OpenVMS cluster, and am looking to cut corners and save
some money by using this stash of tapes I just uncovered. Should be enough
tapes there to set up a small pool. Besides once I've got a good copy of
the data I'm going to shadow the drives :^) That's the other thing I should
have had going, but haven't gotten around to. You can never have your data
*to* safe :^)

                                Zane
Received on Thu Mar 30 2000 - 17:25:23 BST