I've heard a lot of people complain about losing songs to DAT backup, and I've heard a lot of people say they won't even consider it because it's too slow.
I've been using DAT as my primary backup for 1 year. I've filled up 10+ tapes, accessed them many times, and have yet to lose a song.
Here is a list of observations.
1. DAT backup/recovery is reliable
2. Retrieve errors are common. There are (at least) two types:
Type b. are usually resolved by a second pass at the song. Type a. are the most annoying. You may not find out about them until you have tried to load the whole song. And they won't be corrected by a second pass, unless you change your mode of operation. They occur sometimes because the DAT song ID is not exact with the start of the song. You could be missing the first few bits of information, or there could be a change from 44 to 48khz, which temporarily sends the VS into Digital Unlock, and it can then miss the start of the song. Once you get it aligned properly to start at the beginning, it can take only 10 seconds for the second pass, and then you'll be done with your recovery.
Solution to this problem: back up the whole drive at once, and record 10+ seconds of digital nothing after they lock up, before you hit play on the VS. This will allow them to lock up more easily on recovery. Also, in the obvious category, make sure your connections are good, fully wind and rewind a tape before recording or playing it, and keep your DAT deck in good condition.
3. DAT backup/recovery is slow. I am waiting for Syjets to get back in stock for my primary backup. But DATs are always a worthy choice for long-term archiving and as a secondary backup. But slow recovery isn't always a problem. Learn to multitask. I'm recovering a gig-ful as I write this.
4. It's very easy to accidently initialize your hard drive. I have done this twice. Luckily, I always had backups. The VS asks you if you're ready to recover and then asks: "SNG Init. IDE:0 OK?" If you're not careful, it looks like it's just asking you to select the target drive for recovery. But if you say "yes" twice, you'll initialize your drive and lose everything on it.
5. DAT Backup is tres cheap. It costs me $15 to backup my entire 1gig HD. It would cost me $120 to do this to ZIP disks. I'm not sure why anyone is so adamant about having CD or PC long-term storage (either of which would require backup/recovery as does DAT Backup) when DAT Backup is already available.
Steven Dunston
21 Feb 1998
1998/03