This reminds of a true story, from way back in my days as a programmer at a
bank in northern New Jersey :

We stored our data tapes in  a safe in the computer room and a similar one
at a branch office some miles away, I believe the manufacturer was Diebold.
Our auditors posed much the same question - how safe are the tapes stored
there?  (Reel-to-Reel mag tapes, at the time).

Our DP manager came across a news article, which described a serious fire
in a bank in Japan.  Their data processing facility burned to the ground.
The safe, which was identical to the ones we had, fell nine floors to the
ground, in the heart of the fire.  After a few days, it was opened, and to
everyone's surprise - the tapes were readable!!  That was good enough even
for our auditors!

Seriously, as was stated, there's no substitute for offsite backup storage.
We rotate our own backup DDS2 tapes, taking the most recent offsite every
night for 3 days, and keeping a system load tape offisite as well.  Tapes
can easily be retrieved if needed to restore files.

Connie

>I suppose it depends on at what temperature the media starts to melt. My
>guess is that it would be lower than the temperature at which paper burns,
>which we all know is 451 degrees F.
>The more important question is whether you will be able to recover the tapes
>from the cabinet. Many times after a fire the building is off limits for a
>period of time. So, even if your tapes are in good condition you may not be
>able to recover them. While there is no truly fail safe method of storing
>media many offsite storage companies provide a close to 100% safe solution.
>The trick is to know how often you need to get tapes offsite, i.e. how much
>data can you afford to lose?
>
>Joseph Rosenblatt
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:   HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
>Of Tom Brandt
>Sent:   Friday, July 21, 2000 9:30 AM
>To:     [log in to unmask]
>Subject:        [HP3000-L] Fireproof cabinets and backup media
>
>We have a fireproof file cabinet which claims to protect paper contents for
>up to 1.5 hours at 1700 degrees F.  Does anyone out there have any sense of
>what kind of protection a cabinet like this will provide for magnetic
>backup media, such as DDS tapes?
>
>Tom Brandt
>Northtech Systems, Inc.
>http://www.northtech.com

Connie Sellitto
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