In the case where you are required to put the data on tape, you might as
take a new tape out of the box, write the name of the archive one it and put
it into the box going off-site.  Skip that annoying step where you put the
tape into a drive.  If you aren't ever going to be able to read it anyway,
why write it.

Perhaps you can get a deal on tapes that don't actually have any tape in the
cartridge.  Those should be considerably cheaper.  The problem would be the
weight.  I guess you could fill the cartridges with fishing weights to make
the approximate weight of a cartridge with tape in it.

On top of this, you're probably archiving, in paper format, the original
stuff that was used to fill the database.  The good news about that is you
could actually read the paper 20 years from now.

Kelly J. Lipp
Storage Solutions Specialists, Inc.
PO Box 51313
Colorado Springs CO 80949-1313
(719) 531-5926
Fax: (240) 539-7175
Email: lipp AT storsol DOT com or lipp AT storserver DOT com
www.storsol.com
www.storserver.com