Hard drive-based backup in lieu of tape backup

Hello,

We've just reached the point with our single-tape backup drive where
we have too much data to back up on a single-tape drive. Our backup
has now reached 4 tapes, so the backup procedure is simply taking too
long for our business to function at the level it needs to.

We're now faced with the decision of whether to go to a multi-tape
robotic library of some type, or move to an entirely disk-based backup
solution. I'd really like to move to disks, and still maybe run tape
backup every 1 or 2 weeks for a while until we get adjusted to the
disk-based method.

Has anyone else experimented with this yet? We currently use Symantec
Backup Exec 11d for tape, so we can continue to use that with the disk-
based or removable disk-based backup processes that are built into
BE11. I can't decide whether to use USB/FireWire external drives or
go ahead and buy a NAS device and run backups to the RAID, and just
remove the physical disks to take offsite. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
-Coleman

Coleman wrote:
>

>
We currently use Symantec Backup Exec 11d

That's the first thing to get rid of. In my experience, Symantec /
Norton products are simply disasters waiting to happen.

As for the rest - you're in the same quandary as plenty of others.

I'd suggest multiple, external RAID 1 or RAID 5 arrays - using full
backups (avoid incremental) each day to separate arrays.

I personally don't trust tape at all; head alignment always
questionable/ dubious and the cause of many problems, plus the cost per
GB, etc,

Critically important data can - in most cases - be backed up to DVD
which is more secure (in my opinion) than tape.

Bear in mind - when we were selling 40MB drives back in 1992, a tape
streamer cost 25% of the hard drive cost - and they tended to be
reliable. Now? Tape backup costs up to 2000% of the storage costs.

Trying to back up 6TB to tape nowadays? There's not a single tape
solution I'd trust.


Duncan
--
Retrodata
www.retrodata.co.uk
Globally Local Data Recovery Experts