From bobrankin@MHV.NET Sun Feb 8 00:33:47 1998 Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 18:14:02 -0500 From: Bob RankinReply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: TOURBUS - 27 Jan 1998 - Better Backups _________ ____________ ________ __________ _____________ ___ _ / | / | | / | \ / Join the International Advisory Panel / | \ |__________|__________/__________|__________|___________/ | \ / /______|----\ | Answer Questions on Interesting Topics and |//////| | | Win $$$ Prizes. Web: http://www.AdvisoryPanel.com |//////| | Email: Info@AdvisoryPanel.com |//////| | \________________________________________________________|______|____| / \ / \ / \ \___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/ TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: A Better Way To Backup Everyone knows you're supposed to brush your teeth, wear a seatbelt, and back up your hard drive. But my recent survey of 1000 users around the world shows that less than 20% do regular backups. You'd need about 1400 floppy disks to backup a 2 gigabyte hard drive, so clearly that's not the right answer. But fortunately there are several new options that make backup almost painless. But before I preach my little backup sermon, take a few minutes to explore Intel's way-cool CONNECTED PC site. They're sponsoring today's TOURBUS issue, and it's definitely worth a visit. <------------------> FREE GOODIES FOR YOUR PC <------------------> Sign up for Info@Intel: Intel's free e-mail newsletter and get an Intel screen saver or desktop theme free. <---> http://www.connectedpc.com/cpc/cpc.htm?iid_itm:1TB02J27& <---> A few years back, I lost five years of my life (or perhaps brain is a better word) when my 80MB hard drive bit the dust, and I vowed it would never happen again. I bought a tape drive, and boy was I glad when my 2.5 gig drive made that freight-train-running-over-used-car-lot noise the day before Christmas. Depending on your budget, the size of your hard disk and your computer usage habits, there are a variety of new devices on the market that can keep your data safe and even open up some new possibilities for data sharing. The basic options are tape drives, removable hard drives, and online backup systems. Let's take a look at each. TAPE DRIVES ----------- If you want backup on a budget, go with a tape drive. For about $150, you can get a tape backup unit that'll pack away 2 gigabytes or more in a single gulp. Since tape drives store your data on removable cartridges, it's a good idea to choose one that can handle your entire hard disk on one cartridge. I like my Iomega Ditto 2GB tape drive, because it's reliable and comes with friendly software that allows me to do automatic nightly backups. Every Sunday, I get a full backup of all my data, and each weekday any files that are new or changed get added to the tape. One drawback of tape drives is that you can't access the stored data like regular files on a hard drive. To list the files on a tape or restore them to disk, you have to use the tape drive software. The access speed is also a lot slower than a hard drive, or the removable drives we'll delve into next. Colorado, Seagate and Exabyte also make highly-rated tape drives, so shop around and find the price and storage capacity that suits you best. Whatever drive you choose, it's not a lot to pay for peace of mind. Iomega Corporation http://www.iomega.com Seagate Technology http://www.seagate.com Exabyte Corporation http://www.exabyte.com HP Colorado http://www.hp.com/tape REMOVABLE DRIVES ---------------- Removable hard drives such as the popular Iomega Zip offer the familiarity of a normal hard drive, and have the added benefit that you can easily plug them into another computer. Once installed, these drives act just like a second hard drive (a D: drive on the PC, or a new folder on the Mac) and you can list, save, copy and delete files with your usual commands or programs. Each Zip disk can hold 100MB of data, which is small when compared to the capacity of tape media, but with direct access to files and transfer rates of 1.4MB per second (five or six times faster than tapes) you make the call. A Zip drive will set you back about $150 and the disks usually cost $15 or so. Alternatives to the Zip drive include the Syquest EzFlyer ($150), which uses 230MB removable disks, and the Avatar Shark ($199) which sports a 250MB capacity. Both the EzFlyer (2.4MB/sec) and the Shark (2.0MB/sec) are a bit faster than the Zip, but the larger cartridges are about twice as expensive as Zip disks. For larger capacity, Iomega's Jaz drive and the Syquest SyJet both can handle 1GB on a single removable disk and cost about $300. Iomega Corporation http://www.iomega.com Syquest Technologies http://www.syquest.com Avatar Peripherals http://www.goavatar.com ONLINE BACKUPS -------------- The newest kid on the backup scene is the online variety. The idea here is that you use your modem to send all your data to a safe repository somewhere in cyberspace. You don't have to invest in or install new hardware, there are no disks to fool with, and you needn't worry about capacity. Online backup systems such as @Backup, Atrieva and Safeguard charge a monthly fee to stash your data, ranging from $15 to $30. There are some very appealing aspects of online backup. Not having any upfront expense for drives or media is a big one, as is the fact that you can retrieve your files from any Internet-capable PC in the world. Security is not a concern, since your data is encrypted before leaving your PC, and it's protected with a password that only you know. Supposedly even the technical support people who run these backup operations cannot access your data. One downside to online backup is that it's as slow as your modem. Even with a 56K modem, you can only pump a pitiful 7-10 KB/sec over a regular phone line. At that rate, it would take a several days to backup a 2GB disk. So instead of a full system backup, a better idea is to identify important data files for backup and just reinstall the programs if you suffer a disk crash. And eventually, that $15 a month is going to exceed the cost of a conventional tape or removable drive system. @Backup http://www.atbackup.com Atrieva http://www.atrieva.com Safeguard Interacive http://www.sgii.com WHICH IS BEST? -------------- There are tradeoffs a-plenty when deciding which backup strategy to use. If you want data security at a reasonable price and speed is not a big concern, go for a tape drive. If quick access to files and portability of data is important to you, the higher priced removable media devices make sense. And if you have no money to invest upfront, or the thought of hooking up any new piece of hardware is scary, try one of the online backup services. *----------------------------[ TAP INTO THE WEB WITH JUNO! ]---------* JUNO: FREE E-MAIL AND MORE! is a must-have book that reveals the secrets of using Juno to the max. Learn how to access the Web, FTP, Usenet and more -- even though they say you can't. Send & receive attachments, even large files. This tell-all book shows you how. TOURBUS RIDERS: Save $2 off the cover price! Send e-mail to BobRankin@MHV.net with Subject: JUNOBOOK for details or visit http://biz.mhv.net/drbob for info & secure online ordering. *--------------------------------------------------------------------* See you next time! --Bob Rankin =====================[ Tourbus Rider Information ]=================== The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238 Copyright 1995-97, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved Archives on the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com Join: Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Leave: Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM =====================================================================
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