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Pros and Cons of Using Tape Drives as a Back Up MediaBy: James WalshArticle Word Count: 722 words [Comments (0)] Total Views: 45 Views |
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There are many storage devices available in the market today, from floppy drives that have a puny capacity of 1.2 MB to portable hard drives that can host up to 500 GB of data. For individual users, USB drives and optical disks such as CDs and DVDs are ideal backup media due to their high capacity, low cost and easy availability. However, the backup needs of small to mid-size businesses are different. They need a backup media that has a very high capacity, is cheap and can be safely archived for a long time. This is where tape drives come in. Tape drives, also called streamers, store data on a thin and flexible plastic tape using the very reliable magnetic storage technology. The tape is coated with a thin layer of magnetic paint. A motor moves the tape back and forth brushing past a read / write head. The latter carries an electro-magnet that emits magnetic pulses to modify the polarity of magnetic particles existing on the tape. In this way, digital data gets recorded. Tape drives are the media of choice for many businesses to fulfil their data-storage needs. They offer several unbeatable benefits but also have some disadvantages. Advantages Magnetic tapes can store and retain data for a long time and are thus ideal for archival purposes. They have a shelf life of 20 to 30 years and even more. Few other storage media can match them in durability. The magnetic tape used to store data by a tape drive is extremely thin and comes in tightly packed plastic cartridges. It is wound over itself many times around a couple of spools. The cartridges are quite light in weight and easily portable from one device to another. The main advantage of this is that the tape cartridges carrying the data can be placed off-site, thus ensuring total protection in case the premises is hit by a data disaster. Tape drives can hold a very large volume of data packed densely over the tape. As a result, there are tape drives available in the market that can pack as much as 800 GB of data. A very high compression ratio, of as much as 3:1, can be attained, which is triple the standard storage capacity. Since so much data can be squeezed in, tape drives offer one of the lowest costs in the market per megabyte of data stored. For security purposes, some tape drives even offer encryption and coding of recorded data, thus preventing it from falling into wrong hands. The new drives are much lighter and more capable with a higher data transfer speed. This is the reason why their popularity has not ebbed over the years even though so many new storage technologies have hit the market. Cons The biggest disadvantage of tape drives over other archival media such as portable hard disks and optical disks is their sequential data access. The data cannot be accessed randomly by the user. Instead, the drive has to move the length of the tape to the exact place where a particular file is located so that the read / write head can access it. Due to this, the seek time becomes uncomfortably long. However, this is not a problem for archival storage of data. Another problem with the tape drives is that a physical contact is maintained at all times between the head and the plastic tape. The latter brushes past the head as it is moved back and forth by the drive motor on the instructions of the operating system. This causes friction and eventually the tape as well as the head, both get worn out. Data Loss Data can be lost from a tape drive in many ways. The most common causes are water and fire damage. The data can also be damaged if the drive is kept too close to a strong magnetic field as it may de-magnetise the media. Too much heat and humidity also degrade the tape and the substrate may expand or shrink. The humidity may result in a growth of fungus while heat may make the tape sag. To recover the data, you have to either use a DIY software or approach a professional recovery company. Author InfoJames Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.ukGrab this articles
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