Have you looked at the Netgear SC101?
You could squeeze upto 1TB of disks into these and they're pretty cheap (you get to buy and fit the disks), only thing I don't really like is the network connection is only 100Mb.
Still as it is a SAN it appears on your PCs as a drive so it's pretty easy to use, you could have duplicates of these just so you're covered in the event a drive dies and still have it work out cheaper and more convenient than tape or one of those massive SAN boxes.
Bob.

RAID 1 and up are great if you're not worried about your office burning down, or getting leveled in an earthquake (happened to an office near mine in 1991), or washed away by a hurricane.

Tape is compact and can be copied and put into safety deposit boxes in bankvaults.

SDLT600 is the latest generation of a data tape technology that builds on long experience, and I think it will be around for a long time. Capacity is 300GB native (600 GB compressed), and it takes about 3h20m to fill a cartridge.

Data tapes have one bit error per 50-100 years, compared to you know what for DV tape. The heads are good for about 50,000 hours, compared to 1500-2000 hours for typical video tape heads. MTBF is 250,000 hours@100% duty cycle which equates to more than 125 years of 40 hours per week use. Archived tapes are rated to last at least 30 years without losing more than 10% demagnetization.

Did I mention that SDLT600 tapes are rated for 1,000,000 passes? How many passes for DV tape? Depends on how lucky you feel.

If you get the idea that this is reliable stuff, you got it right. It is in fact used by many of the world's largest companies to safeguard their data.

There are many top brands to choose from, but Quantum's DLTxchange drives store MXF data on each tape for direct access to HD/SD video metadata and subclips based on timecode. This is like having a *video-oriented* directory on each tape.

$2K is not possible to reach with high capacity drives yet, but you can get an external Quantum SDLT600 box with a 3-year factory warranty for $3,349 at Data Storage Systems. You will need a SCSI card on your computer also, but these are not so expensive anymore.


Addendum: Sony has nice S-AIT1 data drives that store 500GB natively, but they are very pricey still (cheapest I have seen are still well over $8K) and the tapes are $300 each.

From what coursedesign says it sounds like tapes/tape decks have improved dramatically since I last used them. I gave up on tape as a backup medium many years ago because every time I went to recover data from a tape up to 6 months later it was invariably corrupt. It was also very hard and slow to find specific files.

What does everyone have against DV or HDV tape? Lossless, cheap, reliable and durable. Not as many GB as other solutions, but a pretty good cost / GB ratio.

DV tape IS tape backup. I can't think of another medium, with the possible exception of film, that has proved to have better longevity. I often restore audio tape from the 1950's and it is in fine shape. Tape formulations have improved since then. If properly stored, it should last for many decades.

thanks very much everyone ... excellent insights...

I'm thinking of getting an external Sony tape drive, like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16840117029

it's a few hundred more than an internal drive, but with all the stuff I'm running using the internal power supply, plus heat in there already, I don't want to get any more internal stuff ..

dumb question: SCSI .. I've got an asus m/b ... will I need a special pci slot scsi card adaptor to run this external tape drive?

from what I'm seeing, it's $1200 upfront for the drive, then $30-$50 per 80-gig tape, for backups... which is fine... that way I can archive my maxtor drives onto a big stack 'o tapes, and if a drive craps out it's no biggie since I can restore from tape..

a lot more efficient than DVD backups, should be a lot faster, plus I can get my 20-30 gig source avi files from seminar shoots onto tape..

of course, I'll check/verify that tapes are working/reliable... looks like neat new technology w/Sony tapes, they have microchips to help speed up data seek times ..

thoughts on this drive? I'm gonna buy that one unless I see something better... for the money, looks like the best price/performance version..

ken

or this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16840117028

not sure what it all means, re native capacity... is that a throughput constraint? eg why would a 80-gig native capacity tape drive be preferable to a 40gig one? Isn't the constraint, the size of the tapes used?

150 DV/HDV tapes per 2 TB for Ken Calhoun. Those DV/HDV tapes would actually cost more money than SDLT600 tapes for the same amount of data, assuming you want to avoid the skanky consumer tapes. And you would need to get several bank vault security deposit boxes just to store one backup set.

I had few dropout problems when I shot DV, but to get there I had to be meticulous and avoid all the problems that can make video/DV tapes very difficult to recover.

Today's professional data tapes are vastly more reliable, and that with no extra effort. Head alignment is a non-issue, and tapes have CRC checking and automatic bit error correction that actually works.

Ken,

Instead of the AIT-2 drive you listed, look at their AIT-3 drive instead. For the $150 more you get 100Gb natively per tape instead of 80GB, and the tape price is identical, so you'll make up the cost difference on your first backup.

You will need an Ultra SCSI 160 card or better, and it's important to pick a good one, not to mention one with the right connector (there are many).

I'm not up to speed on which SCSI cards work best today, I used to use only Adaptec cards, because they were the only ones with good, reliable drivers, but I'm sure there are others too now.

I have a friend who is a professional SCSI expert, will try to reach him after his normal wakeup time before lunch.

Ken, I have an AIT-2 autoloader (4 tapes) with 8 tapes that I'd like to sell. Contact me off-list if you're interested.

reidwc@sbcglobal.net

My SCSI expert friend recommends getting an Adaptec 19160 card. This handles Ultra 160 and is so reliable it's almost boring. $120 and up at various online stores.

Been using the 160 card for years with no hiccups.

JJK