[MN_N8VTech]

Are tape drives all generally the same? With the difference being mainly the capacity of the media? Ive donr some on them and seem to run across the name travan (?) fairly often. I need to build a system for someone that already has one of these tape drives but wants to upgrade to better equipment, will I find a "better" tape drive? Or have they not changed much over the years? A little higher quality suggestions would be fine, its for a Dr.'s office. Please advise.

 

[JohnWill]

Tape drives are not the same, there are a number of different formats. If I were buying today, I'd look for one of the DLT formats, since the media is much cheaper than the Travan media.

 

[winbob]

Have you actually formulated or analyzed their needs for backups. There are several ways to skin this cat (sorry PETA). Some may be better than Tape, and cost effective as well.

A backup plan for a business will tend to be much different than what I or you would do at home!!!

Can you elaborate on their requirements???

 

[MN_N8VTech]

It is a small chiropractic office with basically 2 workstations and the Dr.'s PC, I will be upgrading one of the older systems somewhat and putting that in a back room purely for the DR. to check appt's on a screen rather than on paper. The office people have expressed a desire for backups to CD's instead, but Im not sure how much data they have to backup, not much Im thinking. And I know theres software that can be easily instrumented with something such as a DVD/RW.

 

[JohnWill]

A DVD-RW drive is very cheap nowadays, and might be a better choice. It'll burn CD's too, so it's a win-win. I agree with winbob, tape may not be the ideal choice, though it's not a bad option to keep in mind.

 

[winbob]

Personally, I'd lean towards a HD in a removable tray.

I suggest that you put on your "System Engineer Consultant Hat", rather than your "PC Geek Hat". They probably have no idea WHAT they need to protect their business!

Depending on what they really NEED versus what they THINK they need, several HD's (which are really cheap these days) Cloned regularly and stored offsite in the "Grandfather, Father, Son cycle" could give them excellent reliable backup.

Likewise they could be used for the G,F,S cycle + incremental backups of very volatile files.

That would be my preference. :up:

 

[MN_N8VTech]

winbob I understand what you mean,and I had thought about suggesting that at first because I agree fully with that option, but this office is very small and not much data to backup. I met with the DR. this AM and went over my proposal with him while offering him several options and came to an agreement. Ill spare you all the details which include 1 new pc,etc, but as for backup we decided to switch over to johnwills suggestion(which I offered as one of the options anyway) and use a DVD/RW drive. One thing Im still trying to decide on though,which Ill need to have a decision by 9 am tomorrow is a good backup software choice. Keeping in mind it should be very user friendly(for office workers to operate easily) and be able to backup files across a small network. What Im leaning toward right now is stompsoft.com. Any suggestions?

 

[winbob]

pctech,

I guess that the EASIEST thing to setup would be a situation where they can just Drag n Drop files to the Burner using Explorer.

Restoration would be the reverse process.