noloc@gli.com (Gil Colon) (08/04/90)
bellotti@cbnewsl.att.com (a.bellotti) writes: >I perform unattended nightly backups of my files/packages (40 Megs >or so) onto a 1/4 inch tape. Anyone out there has an idea on how >long should a 1/4 inch tape be used on a daily basis before it >loses its reliability ? How valuable is the data being backed up? I'm assuming that it is somewhat valuable, since you would not have taken the time to back-it-up. Therefore, in my case, and experience, anything more than 60 writes I have found to be un-reliable. Two things generally have happened: 1) The tape, after awhile, breaks off at one end. This was generally true of tapes I purchased from Inmac, using their brand of 1/4" media. This is was caused from the costant tensioning performed by writes and rewinds. However, 3M brands have not given me this problem. (I am not condeming or pushing either of these products, just stating experience) :-) 2) Head alignment on older SUN3 drives (ie: wangtech/Archive ) would tend not to align on the media properly, causing many read/restore problems. But, I don't think it is the fault of the drive, if not, more the problem of the media streching after many writes. Other than these types of problems, I have not found/experienced any real problems with the media. So, I again ask you: How valuable is the data being backed up? And, protect it as such..... >Alberto Bellotti >aab@attunix.att.com -- Gilbert Colon UUCP: rutgers!glinj!noloc (201) 352-1500 x4302 INTERNET: noloc@gli.com "Where there's a will ---- there's a relative...." -- Treblig Noloc -- How valuable is the data being backed up? I'm assuming that it is somewhat valuable, since you would not have taken the time to back-it-up. Therefore, in my case, and experience, anything more than 60 writes I have found to be un-reliable. Two things generally have happened: 1) The tape, after awhile, breaks off at one end. This was generally true of tapes I purchased from Inamc, using their brand of 1/4" media. This is generally caused from the costant tensioning performed by writes and rewinds. 2) Head alignment on older drives (ie: wangtech 45meg/60meg) would tend to misalign on the media, causing read problems. Other than these types of problems, I have not found/experienced any real problems with the media. So, I again ask you: How valuable is the data being backed up? And, protect it as such..... >Alberto Bellotti >aab@attunix.att.com -- Gilbert Colon UUCP: rutgers!glinj!noloc (201) 352-1500 x4302 INTERNET: noloc@gli.com "Where there's a will ---- there's a relative...." -- Treblig Noloc --