Very Computer

Note: Followups are directed to comp.os.linux.hardware because the other
        operating systems aren't worth wasting disk space.  Flames will
        be sent to /dev/null.

Quote:>I'm thinking of buying a tape backup for my pc.

>The unit I'm looking at is the Colorado T1000 (now owned by HP).

I strongly recommend one of the Travan-3 tape drives, such as the
Iomega Ditto 3200 or the Conner CTT3200.  For only $100 more initially,
you get a tape drive capable of 1.6 GB/tape, rather than a mere
400 MB/tape.  This is really worth it.

Quote:>I supposed another route I might go is with a Zip drive

Tape will be far cheaper in the long run.

The Iomega Ditto 3200 works with ftape 2.03b in linux, if you have a
1 Mb/sec fast floppy controller.  These are the controllers that can
support a 2.88 MB floppy drive.  The Promise 2300+ is one example.
ftape does not yet support 2 Mb/sec controllers.  If you'll get me the
complete low-level documentation on the NEC i82078 controller chip I'll
upgrade ftape.

A note about Iomega:

I *STRONGLY* recommend against the purchase of any Iomega product.  I
have tried to obtain information from Iomega on the 3200 tape drive for
months, and they have ignored my requests.  I've sent these requests via
email, snail-mail, and phone.  Iomega customer service *sucks*.  SAVE
YOURSELF THE POSSIBLE FUTURE HASSLE IN CASE YOU NEED TO CONTACT THE
MANUFACTURER, AND GET THE CONNER 3200 TAPE DRIVE.

Iomega: As always, this post is Copyright (C) 1995 by Kenneth J.
        Hendrickson. You are forbidden from using any of this material
        in your advertising, storing any of this post, and/or
        reproducing any of this post, in whole or in part, in any
        medium.  You may obtain permission to use this copyrighted
        material by answering my questions and ceasing to ignore me.
        I'll also stop telling people how awful your customer service
        is if and when you shape up.

--

PGP Key Fingerprint    02 6A 4F DE DD 77 A1 8B   21 D9 81 EB ED C8 3A DC
We are upping our standards ... so up yours.     Ken Hendrickson N8DGN/5

->   I'm thinking of buying a tape backup for my pc.  While I know I can get
->   support for the filesystems my various operating systems use, I would
->   also like to be able to do a raw disk image backup/recovery.
->
->   I don't really care which OS I run it from but if I have a choice I
->   suppose my order of preference would be Linux, OS/2, Win95, Dos/Win.

A raw copy is trivial with linux. Just do a
"dd if=<partition-or-drive-to-be-backed-up> of=/dev/rmt0"
To restore just exchange "if" and "of".

->
->   The unit I'm looking at is the Colorado T1000 (now owned by HP).
->
->   I supposed another route I might go is with a Zip drive, but the same
->   question would still apply (i.e. can I do raw disk i/o and bypass the
->   various filesystems).

Use dd (an acronym for disk direct), more details in the man-page

Greetings jue

--
--

snail-mail: TU Berlin; Sekr. FR 5-13; Franklinstr. 28-29; 10587 Berlin
=-=-=-=-= "I'm sorry Dave, but I can't do that"  HAL 2000  =-=-=-=-=-=