Are tapes still the best way to back up a server? I was hoping there's a better (cheaper/faster) way to back up my server than buying a new $2000 tap drive (81-160gb). The sales rep said tapes are still the fastest and least difficult way to completely restore the server OS settings should it have a catastrophic failure. I also want to store mothly back-ups off site.

Also, does that price seem fair? I’ve been “out of the loop” for a while. I could order a smaller tap drive but I'd have to be its baby sitter (swap tapes in and out during a complete weekly back up), and my hourly labor cost would quickly exceed any price difference.

At my company for Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Server backups and Desktop backups we back up to attached storage (Firewire or USB or SCSI) drives. We currently use STOMP which is the old Backup Exec. We backup to the attached Drives. We use tape only for quarterly and Yearly backups and only when someone can be here over the weekened. Out tape drives are about 6years old and do not autoload. Cost about 900 USD