Comment IDE as archive-YES (Score 1) 727
I'm doing what you're talking about. No, it's not "perfect", but my budget comes from taxpayers, so I go for cheap yet sufficient. I use 3ware controller to create a RAID-5 array. I backup everything on my network to it. 120gb * 8 @ raid-5=840gb (approx). Then I have a 2nd box of the same that mirrors this data. I have all changed data for the past 60 days plus a full monthly backup. At the end of the year a full month is about 200gb and fits on 2 disks. I've noticed that thus far (2 yrs now) that the IDE drive capacities keep up with my requires of space required. So next year, I copy ALL of my previous archives onto the new disk. This accomplishes a few things
1. My data is good and fresh. I know the data is good as it's all copied onto a brand-new disk. Unlike tape, I trust a copy from disk to disk (/v)
2. It is all in one place. next year, I'm sure I'll be able to buy 200-300gb IDE for the price of my 120gb this year, or my 40gb last year...
3. It's accessible. I have data that originally came from NW 3.11, 3.12, 4.11, and NT 3.51 servers all on a folder on an w2k Drive that works on ANY w2k ws. If I migrate to MS .NET, I just copy all the data to that drive next year!
4. As mentioned by others, it's cheap, fast, and accesible. And after working with computers for 20 yrs I WOULD trust a hard drive (that is mirrored and updated) more then tape drives. I can read IDe from a few years ago (although I don't need to) much easier then trying to find the backup program, tapes, and drive parts of a tape drive from the same timeframe. So when we move to serial ATA, I just copy the data to a serial ATA drive. The next technology? Just do it again. And if my drive does crash? So what, I've got a 2nd verified copy off-site.
Works great and is cheap. Easy, too.
1. My data is good and fresh. I know the data is good as it's all copied onto a brand-new disk. Unlike tape, I trust a copy from disk to disk (/v)
2. It is all in one place. next year, I'm sure I'll be able to buy 200-300gb IDE for the price of my 120gb this year, or my 40gb last year...
3. It's accessible. I have data that originally came from NW 3.11, 3.12, 4.11, and NT 3.51 servers all on a folder on an w2k Drive that works on ANY w2k ws. If I migrate to MS
4. As mentioned by others, it's cheap, fast, and accesible. And after working with computers for 20 yrs I WOULD trust a hard drive (that is mirrored and updated) more then tape drives. I can read IDe from a few years ago (although I don't need to) much easier then trying to find the backup program, tapes, and drive parts of a tape drive from the same timeframe. So when we move to serial ATA, I just copy the data to a serial ATA drive. The next technology? Just do it again. And if my drive does crash? So what, I've got a 2nd verified copy off-site.
Works great and is cheap. Easy, too.
