[Info-vax] ODS-5 data/file recovery

[MG]

On 17-feb-2013 3:04, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> Storage prices are headed back downward, again.  Four-terabyte 6 Gbps
> SATA disks are US$210 on Amazon.

Maybe compared to 1 and 2 Tbyte disks, but those still haven't dropped
to the level they used to be.


> With smaller SCSI storage configurations, I've rolled out new 146 GB
> SCSI drives into some older configurations; those were US$40 each, when
> reusing some "spare" parts.

I have a bunch ton of healthy 300 Gbyte Ultra320 SCSI disks here (with
both SCA80 and HD68 LVD/SE interfaces).


> When it comes to making data backups, it's a case of capturing the data
> churn while avoiding copying out data that's easily recoverable from
> distro, as David states.  BACKUP does this incremental stuff fairly
> well, though (as I've groused before) everybody gets to roll their own
> DCL procedures.

I'm migrating off VMS and also off my 'main' disk enclosure, which are
all in FILES-11 ODS-5.  So, I had to hook up a bunch of external disks
and mix-match.  It wasn't fun, took ages.

Many files which I originally onto there with filenames that 'weren't
liked' (so to speak), required a lot of manual intervention.

Let this be a lesson to anyone foolish enough to think VMS, in its
current form and shape, is useful as a serious file server (and thus
for any data).  I'm going to be emulating VMS mostly from now on,
this whole migration is part of my 'decommissioning' plan for my
rx2620.  I don't feel like paying the electricity bills anymore.


> I'm not so sure tapes make all that much sense for small shops and
> hobbyists, either.  Yeah, tapes do work.  Decent choices for long-term
> and off-site, too.  Tape drives (with decent capacity), libraries
> (again, with decent capacities), and tape media are (fairly) expensive,
> and (without a library or loader) require some manual effort.  For
> transient and local backups and particularly hobbyist stuff, disks are
> a cheap^Winexpensive choice.

Works fine for me, especially 'static' data.

  - MG