4 ms·

LTO5 is out of date, the prices you're seeing reflect there being a small but consistent demand for enterprise customers needing to purchase these to read LTO5,

LTO5 is out of date, the prices you're seeing reflect there being a small but consistent demand for enterprise customers needing to purchase these to read LTO5,4 and 3 tapes and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.