CompuServe Messages

No, I wouldn't go so far as to say I think the media is not stable enough. It's really at least as good as floppies. Plus the storage capacity is obviously great. Another benefit is in transporting files to service bureaus. I just wanted to let you know (you probably already did) that the media is not fail safe. A couple of copies is still a good idea. Regarding your old tape system, ArcServe and a Mac program we also use for interim drive clearing both are able to do incremental backups, meaning they only back up files that have changed since the last backup. They also keep a log file of what is on each tape, in each session. Palindrome, another DAT system (proprietary, tho' and costing around $5000) will even label each of your tapes, migrate files off your drive that have not changed in X amount of time and tell you which tape to insert to get the file you call for restoring. Now, to throw another wrinkle in, for about 2 times the money you could get a 3 1/2" optical drive that holds 128 MB per $30 disk and, being optical, has a shelf life of about 10 years. You could put them up on your refridgerator with cute little magnets and they'd still be good. Back to the Syquests (hop here, hop there), as I said, we only use them on Macs, so the stability on a DOS system is an unknown to me. I'd guess it to be much better, as with the operating systems themselves. So, I haven't said "Yes" or "No", so that makes me a real expert, right <g>. Let me know what you decide…… DT