[rescue] Tape Backup

[Mike Meredith]

On Tuesday 17 September 2002 1:14 am, Sheldon T. Hall wrote:
> Is this an OK drive?

How old is the drive ? And how heavily used has it been ? DDS tape heads 
do seem to wear out after a while. It could well be the tapes however 
... DDS tapes should be replaced regularly and more frequently than 
managers would like.

If I was backing up my systems with DDS tapes, I'd take a full backup 
every night. Also check the backups at random intervals and destroy any 
tapes that had failed.

> Would running it in compressed mode be any less reliable than normal
> mode?

I wouldn't have thought so ... if a tape goes, you're going to loose 
what's on it whether it's compressed or not.

> Would some other drive be better?

We use DLTs at work, and the tapes seem to fail less frequently than 
DDS.