...I'd always thought this was impossible with basic FDD tech. How wrong was I.
(AND I run Linux. I just haven't used an actual FDD with a mainstream distro since I switched. Kinda glad it's that way around, actually!)
You can get a hard drive and back it up for cheaper and at faster speeds. Plus it is likely (if you go USB) that you will be able to take it with you to any computer without the need to check for blu-ray.
I don't currently back up to a hard drive and stick it in my drawer... I back up important data to CD/DVD/.
Backing up to a HDD each time is expensive compared to the cost that a few discs should run to. The problem is that next-gen optical storage isn't cheap enough yet.
To be fair, it doesn't have to be BD. I'd take anything with better density, so long as it's relable.
But it was interesting to read the other replies to your post, about CD and DVD encoding.
I really wish they'd start investing in dragging the cost of next-generation media down. Blu-Ray is great if you ignore the DRM aspects.. Which for data backup renders it perfectly adequate.
Though I'd much rather see something with a little more than 50GB of storage... But then, if they spent their R&D money on perfecting/improving the multi-layer technology, we'd all be backing-up to n*25GB discs in no time.
Why waste all the research budget on ageing technology, when it takes a whole spindle of DVD-Rs to back-up my 2TB RAID array?
"Engineering without management is art." -- Jeff Johnson
