The other day I was helping out TechRepublic-Editor-turned-Computer-Troubleshooters-consultant

Erik Eckel at one of his customer’s sites. Erik was installing a new Windows Server

2003 SBS server and needed some help with a particularly tricky network

installation. While we were finishing the installation, I noticed a nifty

little device attached to the server that Erik was using for backups – an


Iomega Rev drive.

This is a device much similar to the old Iomega Zip and

Iomega Jaz drives. It’s basically a cartridge drive that you can attach to your

server or workstation to hold data. Whereas the old Zip drives were limited to

100Mb and the Jaz to a few gigabytes, the Rev drives come in 35Gb and 70Gb

flavors – enough for most workstations and small servers. There’s even a 320Gb

option for larger servers.

All in all, it looked like a pretty nice piece of equipment. It’s

a faster alternative to tape backups and smaller than a portable hard drive. Iomega

has been creating devices like this ever since the ancient Bernoulli Box. I

haven’t had the chance to play with one directly, so I might have to hit Iomega

up for an evaluation unit.

As hard drives get bigger on workstations and servers,

backing them up become increasingly problematic. Tape sizes and speeds are

having a hard time keeping up, and having redundant spare drives can get pricey

as well. Give me some good alternatives for fast portable backup storage.