Hello Alvin, Thanks for your response. Please see my comments inline below. Steve ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alvin Starr" <alvin@netvel.net> To: "Steve Petrie, P.Eng." <apetrie@aspetrie.net>; "GTALUG Talk" <talk@gtalug.org> Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2016 9:46 AM Subject: Re: [GTALUG] Advice -- Building Debian 8 PC To Replace Win XP PC;
Tape drives are hard to come by these days. Have you thought about a USB drive for backup?
I do plan to use portable USB drives for backup on the new Linux PC. I did consider getting the portable USB drives now, and using them for backup on the existing Windows XP PC. However, I prefer not to mess around with changing the backup method on the Windows XP PC, since I plan to stop using it as soon as the new Linux PC is operational. There are plenty of inexpensive used DDS-3 tape drives available e.g. on eBay, and from other sources.
Or a NAS box. There are several inexpensive 1 and 2 drive NAS enclosures that you can get to put on your local network.
As with the portable USB drive idea, I prefer not to complicate the Windows XP setup, by attaching new devices. <snip>
It may be worth looking into getting the drive fixed. I believe that Memofix(http://www.memofix.com/) will repair tape drives.
Thanks for the tip !! I see they are a Canadian firm, so no border-crossing complications. I will investigate further.
On 08/09/2016 09:35 AM, Steve Petrie, P.Eng. via talk wrote:
Greetings To GTALUG Members,
A setback has occurred in my project to acquire a new Linux PC.
On the Windows XP PC that is going to be replaced by the new Linux PC, the DDS-3 DAT SCSI tape drive has died, that does backup duty for the HDD. Died too soon by only a couple of months -- !@#$%^&*(!!
Since it could still take a few months for me to complete the acquisition of and conversion to the new Linux PC, I am not going to risk operating the Windows XP PC without regular HDD backup for so long.
So, I need to source a replacement tape drive for the Windows XP PC, before I can continue with acquisition of the new Linux PC.
A soon as I have a replacement tape drive operating on the Windows XP PC, I will resume the Linux PC acquisition project, and complete the revisions to the specification of components, per advice from GTALUG members.
Regards,
Steve
* * *
Steve Petrie, P.Eng.
ITS-ETO Consortium Oakville, Ontario, Canada (905) 847-3253 apetrie@aspetrie.net
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