At 16:00 -0400 5/26/98, Andy Skuse wrote:

(A floppy disk used for backup purposes is about 99% likely to have
acquired a serious case of bad sectors within a week, IME)

No, they're not the most reliable format (I just got a Zip drive and it's
worth every penny!), but they're better than nothing, especially when what
you had on your hard drive suddenly becomes *nothing*.

Ara?  a ZIP drive?  Sure, they're convenient, but they are NOT good back-up
devices.

And if anyone out there is thinking about buying a backup device, basically
there are two categories: Big and small. If you only want to backup your
documents, image files, spreadsheets etc., then a Zip drive or LS-120 is
the way to go. If you want to back up your whole hard drive, then a Tape
Backup or a Jaz or a SparQ drive should do the trick. CD Burners are an
option too, but if  you're going to get one, go SCSI or Internal IDE: the
External parallel port models are much slower and not as reliable IMO.

Hmmm.  As to the CDR or CDRW drive, Zen agrees completely.  The media is
DIRT cheap now, and for permanent backup, cannot be beat.  Best drives
running for this are the HP CDR/W drives... reliable and fast.  Ricoh's
are at the bottom of the list.

As for Zips or Jazz drives....

Please forgive Zen, Skuse-san... but Zen must respectfully disagree.
As a backup medium, NEITHER ZIP nor Jazz drives are particularly safe.
Both are contact media - highly susceptible to head crashes.  And the
ZIP drive has what Zen considers to be a fatal design flaw... to wit,
the 'click of death' that sometimes accompanies the insertion of zip
media into the drive.  Both media AND drive are dead if this happens.
Non recoverable.


If you want *reliable* backup, Zen suggests an MO drive.  They are a
little pricier - but the cost is WELL worth it.  Zen uses an Olympus
model SYS-230 - a 3.5 inch MO dirve, rewriteable, and FAST compared to
Zips.  Also, CHEAP.  The drive is moderately priced at around 300 bux,
and is availale in SCSI or SCSI/Parallel configurations.  The media, if
you buy from Olympus, is five discs for 50 bux, making it quite cost
competitive with Zips.  Particularly since the MO are 230 Mb, and the
Zips are 100.

Best of all, it's non contact, and non magnetic.  VERY safe and reliable
storage.  (And the disks fit in carriers for standard 3.5 inch floppies,
too!)

Andy Skuse

Zen no Itan-sha
Apprentice to the Angels of the Apocalypse