Re: REPOST: RMAN question

"Howard J. Rogers" <hjr_at_dizwell.com> wrote in message news:<41353e6e$0$5450$afc38c87_at_news.optusnet.com.au>...
> Daniel Morgan wrote:
>
> >>>I too have formatted a lot of hard disks. But never one with static
> >>>content put away for safe storage.
> >>
> >>
> >> I can remember us putting a hard disk away once. Not for archiving
> >> purposes, but with the intent of sometime sending it away for a bit of
> >> data recovery. I caught a junior fetching it out from the filing cabinet
> >> one evening, intending to install it into a user's workstation since
> >> their own hard disk had failed...
> >
> > I guess you do things differently down under than we do them here in the
> > colonies.
> >
> > Here when we use hard disks for back up we put them in boxes and ship
> > them out of state to places designated as safe data respositories.
> >
> > What you describe could have, as easily, happened with a tape.
>
> Of course it could. But how many times have you ever wanted to install a
> spare tape into a user's PC because their tape had failed? So whilst it
> could have happened to a tape, it is vanishingly unlikely that the
> motivation ever to do it would arise in the first place.

Not a user's PC, but definitely on servers. (Well, I've come close on my own PC :-O but I'm the only person I know who uses tape on a PC. Because I'm a packrat. Yes, I have stacks of punch cards.)

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=65dd3i%24chj%241%40pebble.ml.org&output=gplain (And yes, I think hot backups and RMAN are now mostly properly debugged... after this many years since that post... and no, I don't know if any of those tapes still exist [the dot.bomb I was working at at that time apparently does not]).

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=65dbv8%24c1l%241%40pebble.ml.org&output=gplain

And both then and more recently, I've seen places upgrading to new tape technology unwilling to spring for new tapes for the old tech.

And I _know_ I'm not the only one who has had DLT troubles.

>
> [snip]
>

>
> These guys work for the British Museum. They do long-term storage (for
> centuries) for a living. I think the results of their deliberations have
> merit.

Agreed, and I'm sure I've seen something similar about NASA besides http://sdcd.gsfc.nasa.gov/SCB/whitepaper.data_survive.html . And besides the Veger stuff :-)

Interesting slashdot discussion, claims that disk drives go bad when unused: http://ask.slashdot.org/askslashdot/02/12/08/2238227.shtml?tid=137

jg

--
@home.com is bogus.  "There's a big difference between a backup medium
(a copy that's probably replaced every day / week / month and is
intended for use in the immediate future) and archival storage (a copy
that's intended for use 5+ years in the future)....If you want
something you can just throw in a hole and forget about, sorry – that
media doesn't exist. " - Sunspot42.