OT. DV Camcorder as a data backup unit??

[paulw]

Read this link from Toms Hardware Guide.

http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20030912/index.html

Not quite ready for prime time..

[Sasq]

its not exactly new, some guy coded a nix version a while ago.

Concept it quite interesting

Here is the nix page explaining how he does it http://dvbackup.sourceforge.net/

[Brian Ellis]

I don't believe tape is a reliable backup or data storage medium, unless it has redundant storage, which would slow it down and reduce capacity.

I used to back up essential data with QIC cartridges on a daily/weekly/monthly basis with verification. Over 2 or 3 years, I had occasion to restore perhaps a dozen files or directories. On at least one-third of the occasions, reading the latest tape was problematic or even impossible and probably on at least two occasions, I had to go back two days. To resolve this problem, I bought a HP 1 x CD-R drive with discs (one per day) at about $5 each. This was MUCH more reliable and disc storage was much simpler. I have a friend who bought a DAT (? digital backup tape) system at about the same time (~$8,000) and he had occasional problems, as well although less serious than ours. A single minute speck of abrasive dust on a tape can kill the record of a bit or two, any day, where it would not be noticeable on video.

More reliable and cheaper would be some form of DVD data recording. After all, the V does stand for versatile.