| Contrary to popular belief, tape drives are generally | | | | or stack them in a pyramid on the floor; the tapes |
| robust and reliable. However, there are three common | | | | should be |
| mistakes that people make that dramatically increase | | | | handled and stored carefully. Tape drives should be |
| the probability of | | | | kept as far away from contaminants as possible; for |
| tape drive failure.Firstly, it is not well known that tape | | | | example, they shouldn't be placed directly on the |
| drives is differ considerably in terms of how long they | | | | carpet or kept in dusty environments.Tapes should |
| are designed to operate each day. Each tape drive | | | | always be stored in a different location to the server, |
| range has a specified duty cycle, | | | | in order to prevent a disaster that damages the server |
| which is the maximum percentage of time that the | | | | from also damaging the backups on tape. At the very |
| drive should be operational. For example, a drive with a | | | | least, weekly tapes should be stored offsite. To |
| duty cycle of 50% should be operational for no more | | | | reduce the chance of fire damage or theft, tapes |
| than 12 hours a day, while a drive with a duty cycle of | | | | should be stored in a fireproof safe.By following these |
| 100% may run continuously.Secondly, it is not well | | | | simple tips, your tape backups should run reliably, and |
| known that data must be supplied to tape drives at a | | | | you'll avoid the costly exercise of replacing your tape |
| sufficient rate in order to keep them streaming, or else | | | | drive.Linus Chang is a backup expert and the lead |
| the tape suffers from start-stop motion. | | | | developer of BackupAssist -- tape backup software |
| It's easy to imagine the wear-and-tear this places on | | | | that is simple and affordable, and perfect for small and |
| the tape, and how the integrity of the data stored on | | | | medium businesses. Protect your Windows servers, |
| the tape can be severely degraded.Thirdly, poor | | | | including SQL Server and Exchange Server, to tape, |
| handling and storage commonly causes damage to | | | | REV drive, hard drive, NAS and more, at a fraction of |
| tapes and the drive. It's not a good idea to drop tapes | | | | the cost of other backup software. |