Virus

[King Harold]

In case you didn't notice, and I seriously doubt you did, I agreed with you. You didn't expect that did you? I was just saying that most people don't agree with you, but then most people are dumb (seriously, look at the statistics.. But it doesn't apply to us here, programmers of any kind can't be as dumb as all those idiots out there who (forexample) think that the internet is like the sewersystem)
So, no need to hit on my arguments, they support your opinion.

[Arcane WIzard]

I didn't say you disagreed with anything but the actual number, which you did disagree on. And so do I.

Of course it's not 99%, there's not even a generalistic scenario that accounts for all possibilities the number in the statement should count for.

But you get my point, right?

[King Harold]

Yup, I do. And you're right.

[CompWiz]

Hmm, now that I think about it, I think an old computer that my grandfather used to use had a tape drive in it. It is about 12 years old. Would that drive work?

anyone?



Thanks for posting the price of the tape, that's helpful. Anyone know the prices of tape drives? Seeing as how cheap the tapes are, I might just go for this.

Just curious, how do you access the contents of a tape? can you look through the files on the tape like you would a hard drive, and copy some off? Or do you have to restore everything?

[King Harold]

Do you remember using those tiny tapes? those painfully slow nasty things that allways took hours to search through?
I wouldn't like it, but if they somehow got better.. (but how? you can't really put a FAT on it and tell the tapedrive to "fast forward for 1.23 milisecond" or something like that, they're not accurate enough and they never will be seeing as they are and allways will be completely mechanical)
I'd go for DVD-RW's which are around €7,50 for 25 of them, that's 25 * 4,7 GB = 117,5 GB for €7,50.
So actually they're quite cheap, and they wont be killed by someone who's playing around with magnets. And lots faster then tapes if you want to search for specific files.

[kv83]

There is a good reason why those babies are used for backups and not for games or anything else. Afaik you can't search for a file. It's just copy all to your pc or not...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Data_Storage

So actually they're quite cheape, and they wont be killed by someone who's playing around with magnets.

No, but your little brother playing with stickers or with sharp things will kill that thing. Tapes are much safer... i use them often, since I have a camera which uses tapes.

Further more, imagine to have to backup 80 GB with DVD's. The burning process is slow and requires a lot of swapping of dvd's. With tapes you hit the "run" button at the evening and he is propably finished at the next morning.

Further more you can re-use tapes... "normal" dvd's not, which make them expensive in the long-term

[King Harold]

Further more you can re-use tapes... "normal" dvd's not, which make them expensive in the long-term

Well I was talking about DVD-RW's, which will die after a while, so yes in the long-term.... But what if you for any reason only need 1 file back and you cleaned your HD of stuff which you don't need but you backed up anyway, (yes it can happen, it happens to me all the time) then if you were using DVD's you could just look it up.
If you were smart enough to index the DVD's.

Anyway, you guys probebly know the hologram disk? That new thing that is actually rewriteble? (don't ask me how it works)
The newest one (the one they said there would be in 2008, but has allready been tested to work) can store up to 800GB, quite nice.. You can search it like any DVD. If you don't delete them the files will still be on it in 100 years, but its VERY EXTREMELY expensive.

Oh and there are even Hologram Harddisks, though I havent checked them yet.

[benryves]

You can search it like any DVD. If you don't delete them the files will still be on it in 100 years, but its VERY EXTREMELY expensive.

The term for this is "random access" (unlike a tape which is "sequential access").

[kv83]

You're not getting 25 DVD-RW's for 7.50 afaik. So I don't believe you when you are saying that. 25 DVD's for 7.50, yes that's a normal price.

[King Harold]

Seriously, just type "DVD RW" in google, and there you go "buy now! 25 DVD-RW's for €7,50!" I bought 5 for €5 2 weeks ago (i know that's more expensive, the closest show just happens to be a Dixons, which is quite expensive)

[Arcane WIzard]

Actually, the number 25 or 7[.,]50 isn't even anywhere on any of the first 4 result pages.

Google has never even seen the string "buy now! 25 DVD-RW's for €7,50".

€1 to €2 per DVD RW is more realistic than €0.30 per DVD RW.

[CompWiz]

I think that I found a solution to my backup problem. Has anyone heard of Carbonite? It's a backup service that will backup all the information on your computer for $45 a year. And yes, it is unlimited. If you have a couple of terrabytes, it will back up everything. After the initial full backup, it then automatically backs up any new or changed files. Also, when you delete a file, it holds on to it for a while, so if you accidentally delete anything, you have a few days during which you can restore it without having to worry about undelete programs. If you lose any files, they have a very simple and easy way to restore it. Also, you can set it to a lower priority so that it will have no effect on the speed of anything else on the internet(I've tried it out, it doesn't effect MMORPG speed). If anyone is interested in getting it, use this link, and it'll give you a free month when you sign up.

link: http://www.carbonite.com/raf/signup.asp ... =19821&a=0

[KevinJB]

Way to post an affiliate link without telling anyone. It makes your entire "plug" seem biased.

[Arcane WIzard]

Uploading terrabytes of my personal data to a shady website sounds like a great plan! No spyware or adware (required)!

Please don't tell me you're serious.

[threefingeredguy]

Plus for every five of us that sign up, CompWiz gets a free PS3!