They are all good tape storage systems, the more you spend the quicker they get but I use the (low end) DDS3 & DDS4 systems which are available secondhand at good prices. I've found these to be very reliable indeed and the backups just run every night automatically onto alternating tape sets.
For those running Windows based OS I would suggest steering clear of the built in backup software - regardless of backup device used. Since it's re-write for Windows2000 I have found it almost impossible to configure a reliable scheduled backup.
As an alternative I suggest a product called Tapeware provided by Yosemite Technologies - see www.tapeware.com for more details.
For a backup stratagy I would recommend the following:-
Four tapes labelled monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday
Three tapes labelled friday1, friday2 and friday3
Three tapes labelled month1, month2 and month3.
And used thus:-
week1 - monday,tuesday, wednesday,thursday,friday1
week2 - monday,tuesday, wednesday,thursday,friday2
week3 - monday,tuesday, wednesday,thursday,friday3
week4 - monday,tuesday, wednesday,thursday,month1
week5 - monday,tuesday, wednesday,thursday,friday1
week6 - monday,tuesday, wednesday,thursday,friday2
week7 - monday,tuesday, wednesday,thursday,friday3
week8 - monday,tuesday, wednesday,thursday,month2
and so on.....
At the instigation of a new backup stratagy I would verify the backup logs AND the contents of the backup tape on a daily basis for the first week. After that, check the logs in the backup software, and select one tape to verify. Too many times I have seen someone lose data because the backup had stopped working and no one had bothered to check it.........
"There are two sorts of computer user - those that have lost data, and those about to" - a backup stratagy like this should ensure you lose (at worst) one day's work.
Simon (underwater) Brown
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