Ricky Lim asked: If you want to safely store your files, there are few better options than
Linux tape backup software. Yes, this software can be used only if you have a Linux based computer, and it can be used on a regular basis, either once a week, or daily.
Another option is using it remotely, to backup files from computers connected to yours. If you use a cron job you can even automate the process, without any work on your part. The cron command allows you to receive an email notification when the backup job is completed.
The Reasons Behind Tape Backups
A lot of people have experienced in the past crashes on their computers, losing customer contacts, valuable data and files, caused by a hard drive crash. If you’ve had this misfortune in the past, you already know how important it can be to keep your information safe.
It can be very expensive losing so much information and files during a hard disk crash. More than that, besides losing all that important files, you also lose time trying to recover them and rebuild the database.
The tips below can be used to make sure you don’t lose a lot of money and time when such a crash happens. The measures you have to take are fairly simple, so it shouldn’t be a problem for you. You probably know already that you should back up the information that is important, but you might think that it’s not going to happen to you, so you do nothing about it.
To back up your computer, all you need to do is to replicate the data you want saved on another computer, so that if the main one crashes, you still have the backup.
You can put those backups in a number of places, including floppy disks, CD’s or other types of storage media. It can be done on a number of storage mediums, then recovered when you need to restore the files you lost.
In many cases, companies use magnetic tape to backup their data, as the costs are low considering how much space they have to offer. They’re more convenient to use than a hard drive would be, and it holds much more data than a floppy disk or CD.
You also have the option to keep all that data in an offsite location, but not everyone is comfortable with their information being kept in another place.
Making Use of Linux Tape Backup Software
To use the tape backup you need to use a program that will backup the files, and works on Linux computers. There are plenty of applications and solutions that do that out there, some more functional than others.
Some of them will even offer the option to backup multiple computers at once, from a central location. Depending on what you need, you should select the software best for you.