Message-Id: <mailto:199505081949.OAA28079@library.wustl.edu> Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 11:59:17 -0700 From: Robert MacKimmie <mailto:rm@CALIFHISTSOC.ORG> Subject: Re: digital image tape storage To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
A two-gigabyte 4mm DAT tape is $20 (at least six months ago they were.)While not long term archival storage, I think that if housed in a vault and only accessed on rare occassions, they should be stable enough to be around in five years or so when some other more stable MONSTER STORAGE method is available.
I think $20 for two gigs beats the hell out of CDs. You do need a DAT drive (under $1k) and archiving software, though standard unix commands can also drive the backup.)
So, yes, I am using DAT for major digital file backup. I first fill up about a dozen 256 meg opticals and then dump to DAT, clear the opticals and start again.
Low resolution versions of each of the Hi-Rez images stay online and the Hi-Rez version becomes the archived version which lives in the vault and the tape is only accessed when really, really needed.
True confessions.
Robert MacKimmie California Historical Society, San Francisco mailto:RM@califhistsoc.org