Claude Jones wrote:
On Thu August 18 2005 3:18 pm, Mike McCarty wrote:
As I mentioned before, tape is very reliable. It has been shown to have
20+ year retention. One gets "wear and tear" only when the tape actually
moves. For data archival purposes, this is effectively never.
Since I've spent over thirty years in the media sector, first sound
engineering, and now television, I can't let this claim pass. You've repeated
it as gospel. I'm sure there are some studies that would make your point,
Yes, there are. And in fact, I myself have some tapes which are 20+
years old.
but, in real world conditions, I would never trust critical backups to tape.
Even supposing a tape's data was intact after 20 years, what would be the
state of the technology? What would you retrieve your data with?
Apparently, you haven't read all of what I said. I pointed out that
getting equipment to read old tapes might be difficult. The IRS has
some such problems at the moment, I believe.
[snip]
world. If you have the staff to maintain the stuff, the equipment to be
maintained, the climate controlled storage environment, along with many other
factors, you might get by with tape backup - I personally would only
recommend tape as a secondary repository.
Each of us is, of course, entitled to an opinion on each subject.
There are several aspects to this ongoing discussion. One of these
aspects was expense. I have pointed out on a couple of
occasions that eventually tape will be cheaper than CDs.
I also pointed out that the jury is still out on CDs' data retention.
For all I know, it is better. Also, for all I know, it is worse.
I pointed out that (good quality) tape has a proven record of data
retention in the 20+ year range.
You dispute this last claim, while admitting that it may be true.
You dispute it based on data retention of non-digital data. I made
no claims in regards to non-digital data retention.
You don't address the first two issues at all.
What do you propose as an alternative, since you disparage tape?
I always think it is better to have a proposal rather than a denial.
Mike
--
p="p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
This message made from 100% recycled bits.
You have found the bank of Larn.
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that!
