ScuzzBlog: Diaries October 2017 Entry 24th October 2017: Post: 2 Not so easy tape ... I recall the day at work we had our first major burn out on a computer. It was an RM machine running Windows 95 and basically all our essential files and work were on the single hard drive. The power burn out pretty much took out all the kit and we lost everything. The practice had only just embarked on the computer as a major tool for drawing and my boss decided we needed a fool proof system for back ups and so we had a Colorado tape drive fitted to the computer. And so the ritual of Friday night back ups would prevail with us having to close down thirty minutes before end of play just so we could be treated to the constant whir of this thing going through its motions. We created endless tapes of all our work and seriously not one of us really understood how the thing worked. Fortunately we never needed to use it to restore any files. I gave up with the thing once the CD writer was installed and although we were told the tape was a better full back up system in truth the computers and the OS was pennies compared to the thousands of pounds a full set of working drawings was worth. So having two or three CDs taken off site each week as back up was good enough. And so the tape became a memory. The noise of that drive still echoes in my head. I still have the very drive plus the other fitted to the other offices. None were ever used to restore anything. Just made us feel safe each weekend before jetting off home. I have these two boxed drives that I don't think have ever really been used. I guess backups are really a nonsense. I am talking about a full back up. I was recently prompted to make a set of back up disks for this Windows 7 machine. I have always cancelled the request. It's only been since 2011... so funny. But I decided finally to make a back up and needed three DvDs... not CDs. Thinking about this I chuckled at the thought of doing the same with a set of disks these days or even a 250MB tape. How things have changed. The Irwin 250MB Tape Drive Uses the speedy parallel port So much to learn just to back up Quite a neat little drive They actually plug together Not the Colorado we had. Ours was fitted to a drive bay in the actual computer Incredibly popular these drives Again the bumper box of goodies Seriously never convenient or easy to use. Was like having a cassette deck fitted to the computer and having to search the whole tape for your track More connectors, more wires, more cables And then there was these odd tapes Useless without a drive. So I could never use them at home or retrieve files anywhere but at the tape station Fortunately we never needed to retrieve anything The Irwin 250MB EZ Tape Drive Colorado Backup I'm sure that somewhere someone still uses them Never a fan

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Last updated 24/10/2017

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