Quote:
Originally posted by Dravyk
Rudeboi, you sound pretty convincing, but in my experience I dislike tapes totally.
About six or seven years ago I had a tape backup system. Slow as shit. Because tape is "linear", to get one tiny file -- that would *always* be at the back of the tape -- it would take 25 minutes to seek. Two minutes to verify and buffer. A micro second to copy.
If I needed another file I would have to wait another 25 minutes for it to go to the beginning then start the process over again. (Total 50 minutes to get the second file, not counting another 25 again to rewind!) After that crap I won't ever go back to tape (unless they have changed radically in some way since that time.)
Even if I didn't need another file, it still wouldn't let me take out the the tape until it rewinded to the start first. That's just insane.
I'd recommed a large external HD using USB 2.0 or Firewire.
|
That's the drawback of tape. Newer tape systems like dds8 & ait4 are a lot better, but still suffer that problem.. that's why for just random file retrieval, you use a disk cache for "easy file safety" needs, and tape for data retention and disaster recovery needs.