Tape drive? Good or bad idea?

[Thready]

I'm thinking about buying a tape drive to store all of my old photography on. I have about 600GB of old photos that are important to me, and I have things like medical documents and scanned social security cards I want to backup. 

 

I looked on Newegg and the prices vary widely but I see a 5.25 drive for $100. I don't know what I'm getting myself into here.

[F___M]

bad idea. get an external hard drive.

[Lenovo1984]

Not really. Just get a couple 2TB mechanical drives and back up your pictures there. Keep one with you and one offsite and you should be good. 

[Thready]

14 minutes ago, F___M said:

bad idea. get an external hard drive.

 

3 minutes ago, Lenovo1984 said:

Not really. Just get a couple 2TB mechanical drives and back up your pictures there. Keep one with you and one offsite and you should be good. 

I'm worried about losing things if the hard drive breaks. I'm a bit of a worry wort when it comes to data storage. I hear that tapes last longer too.

[Lenovo1984]

Just now, Thready said:

I'm worried about losing things if the hard drive breaks. I'm a bit of a worry wort when it comes to data storage. I hear that tapes last longer too.

You'll likely spend a whole lot more than it is worth using tapes, both in time and money. A hard drive is perfectly fine, and you should get two like I suggested. That way you'll have a backup. 

[F___M]

Never, ever have data in only one place. Any computer part can fail without notice.  Tape drives are yesterday.

[Thready]

Just now, F___M said:

Never, ever have data in only one place. Any computer part can fail without notice.  Tape drives are yesterday.

Yeah I have 3 internal HDDs, an external, and an offsite backup

[bimmerman]

Tape has its place, but it's for when you need archival storage.

[Thready]

Just now, bimmerman said:

Tape has its place, but it's for when you need archival storage.

Yeah that's what I was going to use it for. I was thinking of backing up once a year and keeping the tape in my clothes closet. But if an external HDD is a lot more economical and reasonable then I'll just buy a 1 TB

[Lenovo1984]

1 minute ago, Thready said:

Yeah that's what I was going to use it for. I was thinking of backing up once a year and keeping the tape in my clothes closet. But if an external HDD is a lot more economical and reasonable then I'll just buy a 1 TB

It wouldn't really be economical. Also, why would you store the tape in your closet? That kind of defeats the purpose of a backup in case something physical happened to your house. 

[The Torrent]

28 minutes ago, Thready said:

I'm thinking about buying a tape drive to store all of my old photography on. I have about 600GB of old photos that are important to me, and I have things like medical documents and scanned social security cards I want to backup. 

 

I looked on Newegg and the prices vary widely but I see a 5.25 drive for $100. I don't know what I'm getting myself into here.

for 600gb just get a few hard drives and put one on a different place will save you a loooot of hassle

[PlayStation 2]

Here's the problem with your argument for wanting a tape drive: you better have a damn good place to store them temperature and element-wise. Like VHS tapes, data tapes don't last forever, especially if you aren't storing them right. I'd get a couple of hard drives and have redundant backups.

[Thready]

1 minute ago, Lenovo1984 said:

It wouldn't really be economical. Also, why would you store the tape in your closet? That kind of defeats the purpose of a backup in case something physical happened to your house. 

Yeah that's why I'm on here because I don't know anything about tape backups other than tape lasts longer and isn't as vulnerable to shock as HDDs

[Lenovo1984]

1 minute ago, Thready said:

Yeah that's why I'm on here because I don't know anything about tape backups other than tape lasts longer and isn't as vulnerable to shock as HDDs

I wouldn't worry about the shock resistance if it is a pure backup drive. Why would you be using it for more than just backup? The lasts longer part is really only relevant in very long term situations. 

[Thready]

1 minute ago, Lenovo1984 said:

I wouldn't worry about the shock resistance if it is a pure backup drive. Why would you be using it for more than just backup? The lasts longer part is really only relevant in very long term situations. 

I'm hoping to keep medical and financial documents secure in the long run more than I care about the photography. But it seems that I'd just be better off getting an external hdd so I'm just going to buy one of those.

[Lenovo1984]

Just now, Thready said:

I'm hoping to keep medical and financial documents secure in the long run more than I care about the photography. But it seems that I'd just be better off getting an external hdd so I'm just going to buy one of those.

Yeah, you probably will be. Just remember the advice of having an offsite backup and you should be good. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Thready said:

I'm hoping to keep medical and financial documents secure in the long run more than I care about the photography. But it seems that I'd just be better off getting an external hdd so I'm just going to buy one of those.

have you looked at cloud storage? Its a pretty good backup method and its pretty cheap for that amount of storage, and you don't have to worry about the hdd failing.

[SSD Sean]

Multiple HDDs is cheaper than going tape and you can get multiple externals for the same price...which equals more than just one backup which is better.