Backup >100 GB?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Martin Schneider
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M

Martin Schneider

Hi!

I am in need of doing regular backup of a large data storage. Currently I
use a 6x24 DAT autoloader - but breaking the 70 GB barrier I would have to
swap magazines during the process which I'd like to avoid.

Dumping obsolete data has been done several times and becomes an option less
and less.

What (affordable) type of backup would you recommend for >100 GB (to be on
the safe side for some time :-) ?

Thanks for your ideas.
Best regards,
Martin
 
Martin said:
Hi!

I am in need of doing regular backup of a large data storage. Currently I
use a 6x24 DAT autoloader - but breaking the 70 GB barrier I would have to
swap magazines during the process which I'd like to avoid.

Dumping obsolete data has been done several times and becomes an option
less and less.

What (affordable) type of backup would you recommend for >100 GB (to be on
the safe side for some time :-) ?
Click to expand...

Cheapest bet unless you're getting to high enough volume to amortize the
cost of an LTO or SDLT drive would be using hard disks as removable and
disposable media. For a 5-day rotation backup of 120 gig or less the disks
are clearly the cheapest. For 30-day rotation some of the tapes become
attractive.

Best thing to do is work up costing based on using hard disks as if they
were tape cartridges vs the alternatives.

You might find <http://coastalmicrosupply.com/index.php?cPath=2_20> a useful
resource--they have reasonably good pricing on just about everything in the
way of tape.
 
Martin Schneider said:
Hi!

I am in need of doing regular backup of a large data storage. Currently I
use a 6x24 DAT autoloader - but breaking the 70 GB barrier I would have to
swap magazines during the process which I'd like to avoid.

Dumping obsolete data has been done several times and becomes an option less
and less.

What (affordable) type of backup would you recommend for >100 GB (to be on
the safe side for some time :-) ?

Thanks for your ideas.
Best regards,
Martin
Click to expand...
An autoloader with an AIT tape? Or rotations on large disks, as the other
poster suggested
 
I said "affordable" :-)

Well, with 200GB HDs for <$80 (see www.fatwallet.com/forums/ -> hot
deals posts, look for "hard drive thread" in the search box) today, you
can easily drop several of them into a <$40 external USB/FW enclosure
and backup to that.

Also, the Ximeta Network HDs that go for a bit more will work fine as
well if you're backing up over the network to something.

Both options here work fine, and you can easily rotate them as needed.

---

The 200GB HD option can be done for <$100 per drive if you go with a
cheap enclosure, and can backup at least 2 cycles with some compression
of data going on. (100GB of the drive used for 1 image file.)

You can just squeeze in an entire 8 day cycle for <$300 this way, and
it's quite affordable, IMO.

I would then use the current DAT you have to make monthly or biweekly
full backups to tape by hand, so that way, you're covered all around --
fast HD backups daily + slower tape backups monthly.

---

If you use ejectable 3.5" HD carriers, you can simply insert a new HD to
backup to every two days, eject and swap for a new HD set when the old
one is full.

This has the advantage of allowing far faster IDE to IDE backups vs. the
other external methods, and you can backup 100GB in a dozen minutes.
 
USB2 or 1394 hard drives ... I've been using 4 200GB Maxtor drives in
ADS Dual Link enclosures for over a year now ... real handy to be able
to move one or more of the drives to other systems to back them up,
too ... etc ... I use Drive Image 7 to image backup c: (50GB) while
in-use, then SynchroMagic Pro to sync/backup everything else (550GB).
 
Hi!

I am in need of doing regular backup of a large data storage. Currently I
use a 6x24 DAT autoloader - but breaking the 70 GB barrier I would have to
swap magazines during the process which I'd like to avoid.

Dumping obsolete data has been done several times and becomes an option less
and less.

What (affordable) type of backup would you recommend for >100 GB (to be on
the safe side for some time :-) ?
Click to expand...

SDLT (160GB native, 320GB compressed) drives are around
$2500-$3000 (last I looked, could be wrong). AIT3
(100GB/200GB) drives are also around $2800-$3200. Tapes
for the drives are $45-$60. Let's assume 15 tapes or 30
tapes, or 30 tapes plus 30 long-term monthlies.

$3000 + $45x15 = $3675 (1 tape per day, 2 week rotation)
$3000 + $45x30 = $4350 (1/day, 30 day rotation)
$3000 + $45x60 = $5700 (1/day, 30 day, plus archives)

160GB disk drives are around $80 now, plus $40 for a
good quality removable drive caddy (StarTech DRW115
series).

15 drives x $120 = $1800
30 drives x $120 = $3600
60 drives x $120 = $7200

(Yeah, odds are you won't be swapping removable drives
in like tape. So it gets a bit silly past 15 drives.)

However... what you really need to decide is: "How much
is that data worth?" Since you're not keeping any data
long-term, I'd recommend a removable drive bay. Go with
5400 drives since they run cooler (unless your office is
perfectly air-conditioned down to a cool 72F).

(5) 300GB drives $230 + caddies $45 = $1375

Change the drives out weekly and keep all but the
current drive and the oldest drive at an off-site
location. Get a case from Pelican to transport the
drive caddies back and forth.
 
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