About a year ago, I decided that I really needed a decent way to back up
my system.  I bought a SeaGate TR-4 SCSI-2 tape drive for about $275 or
$300 (US), as I recall.  (Actually, I think the price was closer to $250,
but shipping pushed up the total.)  The tape drive also comes in an ATAPI
form, I believe.  I've seen catalogue listings of a $150 tape drive from
SeaGate that sounds like the same thing more or less (perhaps it's the
ATAPI version?).

I'd have to dig up the box to give you a precise model name/whatever, but
I believe that it's called a TapeStor, and is likely to be touted with its
hypothetical compressed storage of 8GB.  (I use it without compression.)

Whether a TR-4 tape is economical, of course, depends upon exactly what
you are going to be doing.  TR-4 tapes seem to cost around $30 (US)
apiece.  CD-R's are down to around a dollar or less apiece, and even CD-RW
media is getting relatively cheap.  And DAT media seems to be rather
cheaper per GB than TR-4, if you need a _lot_ of storage.

For my needs, a couple of TR-4 tapes work pretty well.  I have one in a
safe place (against unlikely events such as fire), and another to which I
make occasional backups.  Periodically, I swap the two tapes (so that I
have a not-too-old backup in a safe place, and a recent backup onhand).  A
single tape easily holds all that I currently need to backup.

I have had no problems with my tape drive.


Re. the ATAPI version (of anything for which we have good SCSI support): I
have read more than once that ATAPI is just the SCSI protocol run over a
more common PC wiring scheme (IDE?).  On NetBSD, supposedly, the same code
manages both, so you should be able to use an ATAPI version with the same
success as with the SCSI version, if you have ATAPI in your computer.  (I
actually have no idea if ATAPI requires any special hardware, or if it can
be run on any IDE(?) controller.  Perhaps soemone else can comment on
that.)  That may save a little money on the device, and more still if you
don't have a SCSI controller.  (Of course, if you're looking at DVD-RAM,
you may not be too worried about the cost of a SCSI controller.  *grin*)


  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  --rkr@rkr.kcnet.com