From: whiles@nswc.navy.mil (William Scott Hiles x1568)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps
Subject: Re: Floppy Backup, Re: 32bit Shareware back
Date: 21 Jul 92 14:18:20 GMT
Article-I.D.: relay.1992Jul21.141820.24239
Reply-To: whiles@nswc.navy.mil
Organization: Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division

In article 711671081@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu, rick@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu (Richard M. Warner) writes:
>
>>In my opinion you are wrong about backing up to floppies.  Many people and
>>companies use a backup strategy which allows them to backup to convenient
>>(but small) media such as floppies.  This strategy is to establish a area
>>of the disk which contains the operating system, and area for programs, and
>>an area for user stuff.  The operating system area and the programs area are 
>>only backed up when they are modified.  The user data area is always backed
>>up and in general may not be that large.  The benefit of backing up to
>>relatively inexpensive floppies which are supported by the os makes such
>>a program and process very attractive.  At this point in OS/2, we have little
>>choice unless we are willing to shell out a lot of money for a tape drive.
>>Diskette drivers are standard with OS/2...
>
>Ahem ... Diskettes are not 'relatively inexpensive' - esp. when you look
>at them relative to tape.  For example, the cheapest one can find DS/HD
>3-1/2" diskettes around here right now is about $1 per diskette.  Thats
>$1 for 1.44 Mb of storage space, or $.70/Mb.  QIC-40 tapes are running
>about $15, for 40 Mb of storage (uncompressed) or $.38/Mb.  QIC-24 tapes
>are $15 each for 60 Mb of storage (uncompressed), or $.25/Mb, and QIC-150
>are about $20 for 150 Mb of storage, or $.13/Mb.  At that rate, those
>floppies get darned expensive.  And they take a lot more space to store,
>also!

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
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps