From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] [reminder] pointer to Plan 9 FAQ
From: anothy@cosym.net
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Message-Id: <20010920152527.57A0F19A4E@mail.cse.psu.edu>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 11:24:25 -0400
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i recently bought a cheap NEC CD-RW drive at a computer show
for <$100. i've been using it under plan 9 for data backups, audio
burning, and more "live" data disks. i've observed no problems
(other than what i believe my IDE hard disk being too slow to
handle burning images ≲ 500MB).

i echo geoff's sentiment that media is the bigger question. i've only
recently come to realize that cds (blank or otherwise) come in
vastly differening qualities. i've got a few that i can stomp on and
they're fine, and i've had some that dropping from a table-height
totally destroyed, sending cracks throughout. ick. i'm currently
using Sony media. i've used others in the past with good results,
but don't remember who.

also, while geoff's obviously correct that CDs arn't really big enough
for full-scale backups, i've had much success keeping backups of
just my changes or additions. i maintain a proto file of parts of the
system i've changed (including things like logs and my home dir),
and periodically blast that out to cd (cd-rw, actually). if you're
selective here (backup source, not binaries, etc) CDs have been fine
for my backup needs.

my next upgrade is to get another 256M or ram so i can store an
entire CD image in memory at once and not have to rely on my
stupid IDE hard disk (assuming i'm correct in my diagnosis).
-α.