Do I need "tape" back-up?

Question

I heard that hard disk drives and CD/DVD disks have limited life span and you'll eventually lose data.

I back up all my computers on external hard drives, but they go "bad" too right?

So, what is the solution to keep data for say, 30 years?

I heard there's such thing as "tape drive" that you can back up data and quite reliable for a long time.

Does anyone know about this? And can you recommend a good back up tape drive system?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hard rives and DVD\CDs are FAR more reliable than the OLD tape storage.

*IF* somehting is THAT important to you, I suggest you make backups on both Hard Drive & DVDs

Tape is more sensative to magnetic fields, humidity, heat, cold etc than Hard drives, DVDs

Answer 2

Your better off with using your external hard drives or backing up to a file server. Tape back up not only takes forever but the tape is also subject to degradation over time. If your data is that important to you you should back up to the external hard drives or server & check the components quality every so often. Though, with gentle use the components should have a very long life span.

Answer 3

Tape drives use magnetic tape that could feasibly go bad too.

Your best bet is to keep a couple of copies of your data. And occasionally refresh it - copy it to new CD's etc.

In most cases, if you have your data burned onto CD's, and on an external hard drive both won't fail.

You can also set up FTP sites, and keep your data stored on them (basically on a hard drive somewhere else) but then if your house were to burn down, you could still go download it.

Nothing makes your data 100% safe, but keeping lots of copies never hurts. And like I said, just check them every once in a while, and make new copies if you are concerned about losing it.

Answer 4

tape drives are good if your backing up LARGE amounts of data I'm talking over 300 gig . (servers ) if your just doing personal PCs i would use external hard drives and once a week some DVD RW, and never worry