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This HP tape drive costs $2347 and can store "up to" 3T per tape. https://www.amazon.com/HP-LTO-5-Ultrium-External-EH958B/dp/B009NEII4E https://www.amazon.com/

This HP tape drive costs $2347 and can store "up to" 3T per tape. https://www.amazon.com/HP-LTO-5-Ultrium-External-EH958B/dp/B009NEII4E https://www.amazon.com/HP-LTO-5-Ultrium-External-EH958B/dp/B... The tapes are $31 and only store 1.5 T. https://www.amazon.com/LTO5-Ultrium-1-5TB-3TB-Case/dp/B003KR4CXQ https://www.amazon.com/LTO5-Ultrium-1-5TB-3TB-Case/dp/B003KR... I can buy a 1.5T hard drive for $47. https://www.amazon.com/Generic-1-5TB-Internal-Desktop-Drive/dp/B005LL9VYO https://www.amazon.com/Generic-1-5TB-Internal-Desktop-Drive/... I'm not seeing the cost-effectiveness of tape.

slavak 8y ago
An IBM 3592 JD Advanced Data Tape Cartridge costs a bit over $200 and has a raw (uncompressed) storage capacity of 15TB. An LTO-8 cartridge is 12TB and under $200. Meanwhile the cheapest 10TB HDD Newegg sells is $304.27.
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  What does the tape drive cost for it?
  - shubb 8y ago
    The internet says around 1000 dollars. I guess it only makes snese if you need to store a petabyte.
  - slavak 8y ago
    No idea. It seems to be sold under the "if you need to ask, you can't afford it" pricing model. These things are definitely not intended for home use; I don't think any tape drives being sold today are, really.
- qaq 8y ago
  10TB is not cost effective HD size 8TB is 160
  - zaarn 8y ago
    8TB harddrives don't have the long term durability of a tape. In a cold and dry room you can have your tapes sit for 3 decades and they'll work. Harddrives usually last about 10 years without power at best before you loose significant amounts of data (you loose bits beforehand, don't worry).
    - skookumchuck 8y ago
      > In a cold and dry room you can have your tapes sit for 3 decades and they'll work. If you can find a working drive, and drivers, for a 30 year old tape. Look at all the problems NASA has with their old tapes. The tapes actually are fine, it's just a major effort to custom build a machine to read them.
      - zaarn 8y ago
        Oh don't worry, you'll get a drive and drivers, these things are build for it and as long as not all vendors for the standard are bankcrupt, you'll get something to read the drive. You can still obtain LTO-1 compatible drives nearly 2 decades after the standard was released.
Tsiklon 8y ago
LTO5 is out of date, the prices you're seeing reflect there being a small but consistent demand for enterprise customers needing to purchase these to read LTO5,4 and 3 tapes and to replace failed out of warranty drives . The latest version of the LTO standard is LTO8 and drives are around $2700 http://www.backupworks.com/Quantum-LTO-8-SAS-tape-drive-TC-L82GN-BR.aspx http://www.backupworks.com/Quantum-LTO-8-SAS-tape-drive-TC-L... Raw capacity of LTO-8 is 12TB at $160, which is a much better value than LTO5 Factor in that these tapes are designed to be written to and then sit on a shelf for years and that such devices are more frequently purchased by enterprises expecting a long service life out of them (say 10+ years) the prices for the complete system do tend reflect this with a higher cost to entry.
- ams6110 8y ago
  > Factor in that these tapes are designed to be written to and then sit on a shelf for years This is important. Your $47 consumer hard drive will likely not have that longevity, nor will your home computer 10 years hence likely have the correct interface and drivers to access it.
  - skookumchuck 8y ago
    I have some older hard disk drives, and none of my current hardware will recognize the drives, even though the interface cable fits. Ditto for my 5.25" floppy drives. I finally threw away my old magtapes because there is no way to read them. I threw away my zip disks for the same reason. And my MD disks. And my old tape cartridges from the 90s - no way to read them. My old computers I retired in perfect working order will no longer boot (probably bad capacitors, who knows). VHS and LaserDisc players are no longer made. The only long term solution I've found is to buy new hard disks every year and copy the data forward.

slavak 8y ago

An IBM 3592 JD Advanced Data Tape Cartridge costs a bit over $200 and has a raw (uncompressed) storage capacity of 15TB. An LTO-8 cartridge is 12TB and under $200. Meanwhile the cheapest 10TB HDD Newegg sells is $304.27.

skookumchuck 8y ago
What does the tape drive cost for it?
- shubb 8y ago
  The internet says around 1000 dollars. I guess it only makes snese if you need to store a petabyte.
- slavak 8y ago
  No idea. It seems to be sold under the "if you need to ask, you can't afford it" pricing model. These things are definitely not intended for home use; I don't think any tape drives being sold today are, really.
qaq 8y ago
10TB is not cost effective HD size 8TB is 160
- zaarn 8y ago
  8TB harddrives don't have the long term durability of a tape. In a cold and dry room you can have your tapes sit for 3 decades and they'll work. Harddrives usually last about 10 years without power at best before you loose significant amounts of data (you loose bits beforehand, don't worry).
  - skookumchuck 8y ago
    > In a cold and dry room you can have your tapes sit for 3 decades and they'll work. If you can find a working drive, and drivers, for a 30 year old tape. Look at all the problems NASA has with their old tapes. The tapes actually are fine, it's just a major effort to custom build a machine to read them.
    - zaarn 8y ago
      Oh don't worry, you'll get a drive and drivers, these things are build for it and as long as not all vendors for the standard are bankcrupt, you'll get something to read the drive. You can still obtain LTO-1 compatible drives nearly 2 decades after the standard was released.

Tsiklon 8y ago

LTO5 is out of date, the prices you're seeing reflect there being a small but consistent demand for enterprise customers needing to purchase these to read LTO5,4 and 3 tapes and to replace failed out of warranty drives . The latest version of the LTO standard is LTO8 and drives are around $2700 http://www.backupworks.com/Quantum-LTO-8-SAS-tape-drive-TC-L82GN-BR.aspx http://www.backupworks.com/Quantum-LTO-8-SAS-tape-drive-TC-L... Raw capacity of LTO-8 is 12TB at $160, which is a much better value than LTO5 Factor in that these tapes are designed to be written to and then sit on a shelf for years and that such devices are more frequently purchased by enterprises expecting a long service life out of them (say 10+ years) the prices for the complete system do tend reflect this with a higher cost to entry.

ams6110 8y ago
> Factor in that these tapes are designed to be written to and then sit on a shelf for years This is important. Your $47 consumer hard drive will likely not have that longevity, nor will your home computer 10 years hence likely have the correct interface and drivers to access it.
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  I have some older hard disk drives, and none of my current hardware will recognize the drives, even though the interface cable fits. Ditto for my 5.25" floppy drives. I finally threw away my old magtapes because there is no way to read them. I threw away my zip disks for the same reason. And my MD disks. And my old tape cartridges from the 90s - no way to read them. My old computers I retired in perfect working order will no longer boot (probably bad capacitors, who knows). VHS and LaserDisc players are no longer made. The only long term solution I've found is to buy new hard disks every year and copy the data forward.