03-05-2006, 09:32 PM
We had been using Retrospect and a Firewire Ecrix VXA1 for backup purposes for the last 5 years or so. The tape drive stopped communicating with all computers so I opened it up and found out that it was a SCSI-1 tape drive with a SCSI to Firewire bridge. I scrounged up an old SCSI-1 external case and an 8600 to connect it to, and lo and behold, the drive functions perfectly (it had been having slight problems the last two time it was used, maybe part of the bridge failure)... So the bridge appears dead.
So, options are:
1. Contact Ecrix and see if I can get a replacement bridge
2. Get an old one off eBay
3. Get a new VXA1 from Ecrix or upgrade to a new VXA2 (tapes are compatible)
4. Dump the whole tape thing and go with hard drives.
So, what are some people's backup strategies? Obviously, a backup is useless if the medium fails (could probably use the 8600 hookup and Retrospect to get all the files off the many tapes if we want to change mediums -- tedious, but possible).
If using a hard drive scenario and the drive fails, so much for the backup, but the same is true if the tape gets destroyed or becomes unreadable...
Any thoughts? Recommendations?
So, options are:
1. Contact Ecrix and see if I can get a replacement bridge
2. Get an old one off eBay
3. Get a new VXA1 from Ecrix or upgrade to a new VXA2 (tapes are compatible)
4. Dump the whole tape thing and go with hard drives.
So, what are some people's backup strategies? Obviously, a backup is useless if the medium fails (could probably use the 8600 hookup and Retrospect to get all the files off the many tapes if we want to change mediums -- tedious, but possible).
If using a hard drive scenario and the drive fails, so much for the backup, but the same is true if the tape gets destroyed or becomes unreadable...
Any thoughts? Recommendations?