Yes, this Backup Reminder is late. Sort of like my Mother's Day card. It's getting to be a habit, and not a good one. Part of the problem is that it seems to take me so much longer to write my own e-zine than to write a blog post for a client. Those rarely take more than half an hour, including research. The Backup Reminder rarely takes less than an hour, often not including research. Not being … [Read more...]
FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder 4-29-05: Another Victim of the Click of Death
It finally happened—my ZIP Parallel drive fell victim to the infamous Click of Death. I’d heard tales of this phenomenon ever since buying the drive (1996, I think it was, though it might have been 1997), but I had never experienced it. With an external hard drive and a CD/DVD-writer, I don’t really need a ZIP drive anymore, but it was a lifesaver back when I bought it. CD-writers were rare, … [Read more...]
More alternatives to tape
The Ur-Guru just sent me a link to an article by Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos in Tom's Hardware Guide called "Backups to Disk: Four Tape Alternatives Put to the Test." They're not kidding when they say "test," either: each one is dismantled and examined from all angles, with photos and screenshots. The first page of the article points out that no single hard drive can be a truly secure backup … [Read more...]
FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder 4-23-04: DVD-writer & REV drive
I have just ordered a combination USB/Firewire CD/DVD writer and will let you know how it works once it arrives. Until recently, DVD writers were more expensive than external hard drives, but this one was only $180 and came with a rewritable DVD. I'm thinking it's a good option for backing up those items which change occasionally and are too large to fit on a CD—not to mention for producing … [Read more...]