Kudos for BackupTapes.net

[unixronin]

I have an LTO-1 tape drive that I use for all my full backups, which I run in rotating sets every couple of months (with weekly differentials and nightly incrementals to a separate device).  It's big, fast and nasty — fast enough that I have to back up four machines at the same time to keep it streaming optimally.  But tapes don't last forever, so a few weeks ago I ordered four new Verbatim 100GB (uncompressed) LTO-1 tapes from BackupTapes.

Two weeks later, the Verbatim tapes are still on back-order.  So they contacted me today.  Actually, it turns out that the price on the Verbatim tapes was what it was because they are reconditioned tapes, a detail which had escaped me.  But the main problem was they were still on back-order.

"So," they told me, "since they're still back-ordered, what we'd like to do is fill your order with new Maxell tapes instead, at the same price.  If that's OK."

Sure, I said.  (Oddly, I have no problem with getting four brand-new 100GB tapes for the price of reconditioned ones.)

"OK then," they said.  "We'll get those out to you today.  You should have them tomorrow."

Nice work, guys.

Comments

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

I was considering this if I really need the storage but I have a PC. Damned pricey though.

http://www.pricewatch.com/tape_drives/sata.htm

Shouldn't these work in a MAC G4 with a PCI sata card? Or are there similar issues with drivers and such?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'd believe the situation would be the same as for the SCSI drive: As long as you can find a PCI SATA controller for which you can get an OSX (I assume you're using OSX?) device driver, it shouldn't be a problem.

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

Nah, just a Linux PC running FC 6 now. Based on the prices I'm seeing I may just get a couple of NAS boxes or externals and run them as backup storage.

A terabyte box is now within my budget.... That's a lot of tape.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I guess the problem I have with backing up to disk is, in the event of something electrically catastrophic like a lightning strike, I want my backups to be OFFLINE, so that they don't get fried along with everything else.