Reliable high-capacity tape backup system for PCs

[yasockie]

Given the prices and availability, I vote for for a bunch of cheap 2-3TB HDDs in a NAS, perhaps two sets in two locations.
Personally I only have <500GB of data that's mine and my client's so I backup from laptop to PC, to Time Capsule and 'cloud' so I have it in 4 physical places.

[garethevans1986]

I found a online backup company that sent you the disks by courier to do the first "seed" backup with....can't remember names off the top of my head.

[stek]

Whether or not you need archives is the crux of the matter. Tapes are very handy for keeping offsite backups and are more robust for transportation.

You can also mix and match: backups to disk and then archive those off to tape periodically.

HSM!

And not High School Musical.....

[Sysman]

SAS is serial attached SCSI and it's the SCSI version of SATA, with the same data rates (i.e. 6Gbps in the latest incarnation) and a few extra features. It's pretty much the standard drive interface on servers and DAS and a lot of SANs use SAS or SATA drives.

Personally I would back up direct to disk unless you need to keep a lot of archived backups. You could put a 16TB NAS together for the cost of that tape drive.

Whether or not you need archives is the crux of the matter. Tapes are very handy for keeping offsite backups and are more robust for transportation.

You can also mix and match: backups to disk and then archive those off to tape periodically.

[Platypus]

So does that mean I also need an expensive SCSI board or adapter? SCSI seems so dated now, and I believe is far outstripped in its throughput rates by USB-3.

You need a card, they're not that expensive < £150 says Google

[eek]

SAS is serial attached SCSI and it's the SCSI version of SATA, with the same data rates (i.e. 6Gbps in the latest incarnation) and a few extra features. It's pretty much the standard drive interface on servers and DAS and a lot of SANs use SAS or SATA drives.

Personally I would back up direct to disk unless you need to keep a lot of archived backups. You could put a 16TB NAS together for the cost of that tape drive.

For £1500 I would be able to build my own 30tb Nas. Although I spent £1000 and went for a 10tb version with enough hardware to also run all the virtual machines I'm likely to ever need.

It did take a bit of research finding suitable hardware to run esxi tho and I still need to get a reliable ups.

[doodab]

I was looking at those LTO-5 drives. The prices are just about within my range, although £1500 is a bit eyewatering.

But the pages I looked at say they use SAS (Serial over SCSI). So does that mean I also need an expensive SCSI board or adapter? SCSI seems so dated now, and I believe is far outstripped in its throughput rates by USB-3.

SAS is serial attached SCSI and it's the SCSI version of SATA, with the same data rates (i.e. 6Gbps in the latest incarnation) and a few extra features. It's pretty much the standard drive interface on servers and DAS and a lot of SANs use SAS or SATA drives.

Personally I would back up direct to disk unless you need to keep a lot of archived backups. You could put a 16TB NAS together for the cost of that tape drive.

[OwlHoot]

Yes it does exist, but not at the price you're hoping for.
Check out LTO-5 Ultrium 3000 tape drives, e.g. Tape Drives and Enclosures | HP Enterprise | HP® United Kingdom ...

I was looking at those LTO-5 drives. The prices are just about within my range, although £1500 is a bit eyewatering.

But the pages I looked at say they use SAS (Serial over SCSI). So does that mean I also need an expensive SCSI board or adapter? SCSI seems so dated now, and I believe is far outstripped in its throughput rates by USB-3.

[Sysman]

Yes it does exist, but not at the price you're hoping for.
Check out LTO-5 Ultrium 3000 tape drives, e.g. Tape Drives and Enclosures | HP Enterprise

I used to use an older LTO drive to back up my "main" PC. IIRC I paid £1500 for the drive and more for the tapes but it paid for itself the few times I needed to recover lost data. The drives are cheap as chips on eBay now

WPPS.

I was using DLT-IV tapes a decade ago which were cheaper than LTOs are now, but still way more expensive than the target price here and they were only 35/70 GB per tape. I never got as far as either SDLT or LTO for home use, on cost grounds.

When I replaced my PC I opted instead for a trio of 3TB HDDs across which I sync and copy my data. It's a faster and cheaper solution, more convenient too.

I've got a set of external 1 & 2 TB disks I rotate.

[Platypus]

Yes it does exist, but not at the price you're hoping for.
Check out LTO-5 Ultrium 3000 tape drives, e.g. Tape Drives and Enclosures | HP Enterprise | HP® United Kingdom

I used to use an older LTO drive to back up my "main" PC. IIRC I paid £1500 for the drive and more for the tapes but it paid for itself the few times I needed to recover lost data. The drives are cheap as chips on eBay now

When I replaced my PC I opted instead for a trio of 3TB HDDs across which I sync and copy my data. It's a faster and cheaper solution, more convenient too.

[stek]

Took about three months to upload my 3.7TB of stuff, but to be honest I've never looked to check! Bad really. Was on Br 1mb upload but switched to BT Infinity for about 10mb or so. It does regulate itself - slows down when u need to do other stuff etc...

Sometimes it randomly complain about no backup for ages when all Mac's are more or less on 24/7...

Need to look at what's there really....

[OwlHoot]

How about Crashplan? It's a cloud service, unlimited storage, monthly fee (forgot what is it!) - all the Macs in the house back up to it.

Took an ages to upload initially but I think it updates at the block level so the incrementals don't take long...

I wondered about Cloud storage; but this guy reckons the claim of unlimited storage is somewhat misleading, as the data rate means it would take a year to upload 1 Tbyte, and I have about 16 Tbytes to backup!

[stek]

How about Crashplan? It's a cloud service, unlimited storage, monthly fee (forgot what is it!) - all the Macs in the house back up to it.

Took an ages to upload initially but I think it updates at the block level so the incrementals don't take long...

[OwlHoot]

Is there such a thing as a PC tape backup system?

If so, can anyone recommend a good one, with tape capacities of at least 2 Tb or preferably 4 Tb (for the latest disks now out)?

I thought of IOmega; but last time I checked, the capacities of their media (zip drives I think they called them) were derisory by today's standards.

Titchy little bluray disks, even the new quad layer ones, are far too small to backup a dozen or more 2 Tbyte disks

It would need to be reasonably affordable (3 or 4 hundred pounds, rather than thousands) and compact (not a floor mounted beast more suitable for a mainframe!)

This may have been discussed before, but things move on.