cpio: Media

1 
1 4 Magnetic Media
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1 
1 Archives are usually written on removable media-tape cartridges, mag
1 tapes, or floppy disks.
1 
1    The amount of data a tape or disk holds depends not only on its size,
1 but also on how it is formatted.  A 2400 foot long reel of mag tape
1 holds 40 megabytes of data when formated at 1600 bits per inch.  The
1 physically smaller EXABYTE tape cartridge holds 2.3 gigabytes.
1 
1    Magnetic media are re-usable-once the archive on a tape is no longer
1 needed, the archive can be erased and the tape or disk used over.  Media
1 quality does deteriorate with use, however.  Most tapes or disks should
1 be disgarded when they begin to produce data errors.
1 
1    Magnetic media are written and erased using magnetic fields, and
1 should be protected from such fields to avoid damage to stored data.
1 Sticking a floppy disk to a filing cabinet using a magnet is probably
1 not a good idea.
1