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- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps
- Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!news.umbc.edu!gmuvax2!kbass
- From: kbass@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Ken Bass)
- Subject: Re: Floppy Backup, Re: 32bit Shareware back
- Message-ID: <1992Jul21.225821.1400@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>
- Organization: George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.
- References: <rick.6.711671081@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu> <1992Jul21.141820.24239@relay.nswc.navy.mil>
- Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 22:58:21 GMT
- Lines: 46
-
- In article <1992Jul21.141820.24239@relay.nswc.navy.mil> whiles@nswc.navy.mil writes:
- >
- >You are correct about the cost of the diskettes themselves. However, there is
- >a tradeoff in the support of the device used to backup the system. The 3.5
- >inch floppy disk drive is standard equipment and is well supported by OS/2.
- >Additionally, I can get Floppies very cheaply at the PX but I cannot get tapes.
- >Further, if you go for a real cheap tape drive, you stand a chance that it will
- >not be supported at some future date. I think that many people have had
- >dealings with companies which produce a new piece of hardware and provide drivers
- >to integrate it into an operating system. Later the company goes bottoms up for
- >various reasons and now you have the hardware, no support, and no chance at
- >getting updates to the drivers (or getting source code to recompile the drivers).
- >The obvious argument here is that the tape drive is a one time investment, but you
- >will quickly find out that it is not when it comes to updates. The hardware
- >is a one time investment, but the software for future releases of an OS or for
- >enhancements is often a cost item. Additionally, if the support for the backup
- >device is not built directly into the operating system, when your system dies,
- >you must first rebuilt the complete operating system, install the hardware
- >drivers and updates, and then you can restore the information that you lost.
- >That is time consuming. With a standard piece of hardware with driver support
- >built into the OS, you only have to get a minimal system up in order to restore
- >a system. Boot with floopy, restore with floppy and get going. Or just compromise
- >and backup the OS partition with floppies and the rest with tapes.
- >
- >Additionally, if I have 10 386s which cost about 1500.00 each, I am not about
- >to spend 500.00 per computer to add a tape drive. If I maintain all the systems
- >identically and the only difference is the user area, I have made life a lot simpler
- >with only floppies.
- >
- >By the way, the backup utility is worth 35.00. I paid over 70.00 for a backup
- >utility from PcTools, so 35.00 makes it extremely attractive regardless of
- >the media which it supports.
- >
- >Scott Hiles
- >whiles@relay.nswc.navy.mil
-
- Yeah, but I'm also not going to spend 1-2 hours per machine to flip
- floppies! My time is worth more than that? Also, I do not think tape
- drives are $500.
-
- ---Ken
-
- --
- Ken Bass (kbass@gmuvax2.gmu.edu) | Telecommunications
- George Mason University | Techniques Corp,
- Student, Department of Electrical Engineering | Software Engineer
-