tlug: CD-R under Linux

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Frank" == Frank Bennett <bennett@example.com> writes:

    Frank> A friend down here has suggested I use CD-R for backups of
    Frank> my personal machines.  Is there a Linux driver that works
    Frank> with CD-R hardware?  Or should I be thinking of a different
    Frank> medium instead?  I like the idea of having random access to
    Frank> backup, but methinks CD-R might not be the only game in
    Frank> town.

Linux works with CD-R (and CD-RW) but the process is slow and requires
a fair amount of spare disk space (AFAIK, as much as you plan to back
up---you start by making an iso-9660 image on disk and then `dd' it to
the CD, more or less).  Media is not reusable, either, although it
stores compactly and isn't that expensive.

I'm planning to do this with ML archives and other stuff I would want
permanently (research papers, CVS archive), but this is archival, it
is not my disaster backup.  I've used floppy tape, MO, and DAT tape
for that; the MO is convenient but some people have told me they don't
think the physical medium is 100% reliable.  Tape and CD we have lots
of experience with; they are more likely to die from obsolete format
than from physical faults.

-- 
University of Tsukuba                Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences       Tel/fax: +81 (298) 53-5091
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
What are those two straight lines for?  "Free software rules."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Technical Meeting: February 13 (Sat), 12:30 place: Temple Univ.
** presentation: XEmacs, by Steven Baur and Martin Buchholz
Next Nomikai: March 19 (Fri), 19:30   Tengu TokyoEkiMae 03-3275-3691
-------------------------------------------------------------------
more info: http://tlug.linux.or.jp                     Sponsor: PHT