MO drives

On 8/1/05, Teo Zenios <teoz at neo.rr.com> wrote: I would caution against using anything unusual. The big problem is that if (more like when) your MO unit fails, you'll need to obtain another one to retrieve your files. I'm helping out someone who used Seagate BackupExec under Windows 95 to back up to CD-R and has found out that newer versions of (now Veritas) BackupExec don't recognize CD-R as a potential restore source, and, of course, BackupExec for Windows NT of the save vintage can't uncompress the Windows 95 media, and BackupExec for Window 95 won't run under XP). Your best bet is to pick a media and a format that won't die for the forseeable future and for which readers/writers will be available. Current pick for media for backing up static files is IDE hard drives. They are cheap (<$0.50/GB), reliable enough (if you are willing to go double redundant or better), high capacity, and compatible with the vast majority of currently available machines without requiring additional hardware. Sure you'll need to transfer to other media (SATA or what follows SATA) in a few years, but you really need to do that with all common media currently available. Although I was wondering about encoding data using DVD+-RW drives that will burn labels into the top of the disk. Sure, the density would be low, but it's probably more durable than the DVD itself :). Eric