Well I know at least for my application the tape backup solution is being
used for redundancy and save on cost. If a tape goes bad I have 6 more that
are available to me which rotate on a daily basis automatically using a auto
changer. If the hard drive was to fail on you then you would loose all of
the data and have to start from scratch. Most companies also do offsite
storage of tapes as well but I guess you can technically do both of these
with the the external HDD but the automation process and expense would be
greater. So I would say that its a matter of preference/expense
requirements. Here is a picture of my setup which works great for me...

*Windows box's back up to a 250Gig HDD on the local Amanada server over the
network using samba.
*Amanda backs up the local partition
*Linux boxes backup directly using the amanda client


This way I do not have to restore my windows backups from tape unless I need
more the the last days of data. Helps save time for me at least.



Jason


> From: ddaasd <ddaasd AT gmail DOT com>
> Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 09:00:28 +0100
> To: <amanda-users AT amanda DOT org>
> Subject: tape backup vs hdd backup
> 
> Hi,
> I am new to this list.
> I work in a company as admin where AMANDA is implemented as a BackUp
> System, so this list is exactly what I was looking for.
> 
> Also I am new to Amanda. I've never configured amanda from scratch. Here
> in the firm, the former admin has configured amanda and now I have it
> working.
> Last days a colleague asked me why are we using tape backup which is
> more complicated and why do we not use an external 250 GB USB/Firewire HDD.
> I didn't know exactly what to say.
> 
> I know all companies have tape backup, but which are the real reasons
> for that. Why not to use an external 300 GB USB HDD?
> 
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> 
> All the best,
> ddaas
> 
> 
> 
>