Jean writes:

> Dear Readers, we have a H-P 3000/957 with a 2g dat drive c2477sz
> and an 8g dat drive c2466r. We are now going into our third tape on a
> once a week backup even though we have spread the files across the
> two drives.  Should we buy  a larger drive(which one) or add a third
> to our cabinet?  Any information will be appreciated very much.

(BTW, please configure your email program to hard-wrap lines...your entire
paragraph came as one LONG line, making it hard to read for some people)

First, I'd ask: *what* are you backing up.  Check if you can get rid
of any old files.  (E.g., [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] might be candidates)

Also, the FINDOLD utility (free at http://www.allegro.com/software/#FINDOLD)
might be of help.   Usage (for system-wide scan):
   run findold.pub.allegro;info="/ -size 4 -days 180"
would look system wide for files >= 4 MB that haven't been accessed in
the last 180 days.

Next, check your backup script/command/job ... *what* are you backing up?

You don't want to backup the entire system ... there are a couple of files
you can safely exclude because they *cannot* ever be restored-in-place!

E.g.:

   STORE / - NL.PUB.SYS - SL.PUB.SYS - DUMPAREA.MPEXL.SYS;   ...

would save about 100 MB ... which might be enough to bring you down to
two tapes (from three).

Finally ... what product are you using for backup?  Does it have software
compression?

Stan Sieler
[log in to unmask]


Stan Sieler                                           [log in to unmask]
www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html          www.allegro.com/sieler