Posted by Gene E. Bloch on 11/15/06 11:33

On 11/30/2005, NunYa Bidness managed to type:
> On Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:13:32 -0500, Jeff Rife <wevsr@nabs.net> Gave
> us:
>
>> Bob (spam@uce.gov) wrote in alt.video.dvd:
>>> On Tue, 29 Nov 2005 01:49:43 -0500, Jeff Rife <wevsr@nabs.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Anybody who wants to back up their 200GB hard drive without swapping
>>>> discs every 20 minutes for 8 hours.
>>>
>>> Backup your HD to another HD in a removable bay. It is a lot faster
>>> and cheaper than an optical disc backup.
>>
>> ...and has all the same problems that hard drives have, and it's *not*
>> cheaper.
>
> It IS cheaper when one considers what one's time is worth. A
> mirrored setup for a HD backs up itself. YOu must personally
> administer optical storage backups, and that labor intensive task is
> very costly from an admin POV.
>
>> I can buy 5 sets of -R discs (or 3 sets of -RW discs) to backup
>> a 200GB drive for the same price as one hard drive.
>
> It ain't about the cost of the medium. It is about reliability and
> effecting an automated solution.
>
>> Optical discs have
>> dropped in price faster than magnetic drives, and they will continue to do
>> so.
>>
>>> If you really want to do the backup properly, then maintain a set of 3
>>> identical discs and rotate them periodically.
>>
>> And, don't drop those hard drives when you move them around, or get
>> anything magnetic too close to them, or let them sit without being used
>> for too long (many drives freeze up after a while).
>
> They are meant to handle upwards of 40G shocks (more than a 3 foot
> drop), and NO hard drive has ever "froze up". That is just plain
> silly.

Mmmm. I've had hard drives freeze up. Some could be brought to life
with CPR (tap them, not too gently or too hard, with the handle of a
screwdriver). One or two never came back to life.

Admittedly, these were FM and MFM drives of about 20 to 40 MB each
(yes, megabytes). Perhaps not the latest technology today...

However, there are other failure modes available for an enterprising
hard drive.

Gino

--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino)
letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")

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