Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!linac!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!pollux.usc.edu!kjh
From: kjh@pollux.usc.edu (Kenneth J. Hendrickson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: tar | compress
Message-ID: <28498@usc>
Date: 29 Nov 90 06:51:23 GMT
Sender: news@usc
Organization: EE-Systems, USC, Los Angeles
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Nntp-Posting-Host: pollux.usc.edu

If you do a backup with tar, and pipe the output through compress before
writing it on the disk or tape, and ...

	if there is a single bit error on the tape,
	then you could loose all the files in your backup from that
		point until the end.

If you don't use compress, and there is a single bit error, you won't
have that problem, but you will require many more disks or tapes.

--

So what do people do?  Do you trust your disks/tapes and use compress?

-- 
  favourite oxymorons:  student athlete, honest politician, civil war
Ken Hendrickson N8DGN/6       kjh@usc.edu      ...!uunet!usc!pollux!kjh