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There used to be, but that market died. Back in the 90s, some formats were relatively popular with power users and small businesses: QIC (https://en.wikipedia.
by adrianmonk 6y ago
There used to be, but that market died. Back in the 90s, some formats were relatively popular with power users and small businesses:
QIC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter-inch_cartridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter-inch_cartridge)
Travan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travan)
Data8 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data8)
I think what killed them is economics. The per-gigabyte cost is lower because tape media is cheaper than hard drives, but the initial investment is much higher because tape drives are expensive. The reason tape drives are expensive probably has to do with manufacturing volume but I'm sure also it's because they are mechanically complex. You need to wind tape onto a spool, you need to keep it at the right tension, and there's the loading/unloading of the tape cartridge.
And tape drives have wear and tear (tape physically dragging across the head), and when the drive breaks, it's expensive to repair, which is big drawback for an individual.
- rusk 6y agoBeing able to write your own optical media killed off tapes as consumer devices. Now that optical drives are on the way out there might be a place for tapes again ...
- andrewflnr 6y agoWhen would they be better than flash storage, though?
- jamiek88 6y agoFor longevity I suppose. Don’t you need to power on flash storage occasionally?
- sitkack 6y agoNot just power it on, but also read it. Flash isn't really a good medium for anything other than operational data. It is a good idea to have a write behind mirror from flash to either HDD, tape or highly replicated storage.
- rusk 6y agoCan you produce flash cheaper than magnetic tape now?
- ksec 6y agoI would put Flash less Reliable than HDD. Basically storing Digital Data Securely, Safely and reliably for consumer is just a bag of hurt right now. Companies want to push you all to the Cloud. And I wasn't happy when that direction started, and being increasingly unhappy with it now given how the companies have acted.
- tomjen3 6y agoI have a ton of files I can properly delete, but which I might need back at some point, possibly decades down the line. I would love to have an affordable tape machine that I could copy the files with, then store one tape at home and one at my parents place. The tapes are affordable, we need the machines to be affordable too.