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Only 3 decades puts an LTO tape firmly in play. But the drive is pricy if you buy new. They're used so much by huge businesses[1], those archives will still be

Only 3 decades puts an LTO tape firmly in play. But the drive is pricy if you buy new. They're used so much by huge businesses[1], those archives will still be on tape in 30 years. The tar format (tape archive) likewise will still be around. Probably the biggest worry would be the interface connector, but considering you can buy serial adapters, and RS-232 is over 60 years old, you'll be able to get a USB adapter for whatever ports we have in 30 years. The standard archive mechanism for the film industry when committing a film's footage to The Vault, is LTO and hard drive. Good enough for Disney is good enough for me. If a cataclysmic change happens in storage media enough to unseat billions upon billions of LTO tapes, there'll be plenty of warning as the whole world changes over. And you'll be able to pick up spare drives for a pittance. [1]: Shipping over 100 exabytes per year. This is slightly less than what just Seagate shipped in HDD capacity, but every byte of LTO storage is both with long term retention in mind.

KronisLV 5y ago
> But the drive is pricy if you buy new. They seem insanely expensive for what they are! The tapes themselves are cheaper than regular HDDs, which is nice. But when you look at the drives, what's basically a box for recording data on the tape costs thousands of dollars! A single drive like that would be more expensive than my entire computer! Why is the pricing like that? Is it because overpricing things for enterprises is okay in the minds of the manufacturers? Low supply? Various certification requirements? How come there are no cheaper compatible drive alternatives and everyone must therefore go for the used market? Actually, why haven't most people even heard of tape drives and backups that way - is it because of the pricing that this never got big or even the fact that not many consider doing backups all that well?
- smackeyacky 5y ago
  Older people who have been IT professionals are familiar with tape. LTO2 drives are pretty cheap and you can buy new tapes. I got mine inside a second hand server I bought, its my go to "last resort" back up mechanism.

KronisLV 5y ago

> But the drive is pricy if you buy new. They seem insanely expensive for what they are! The tapes themselves are cheaper than regular HDDs, which is nice. But when you look at the drives, what's basically a box for recording data on the tape costs thousands of dollars! A single drive like that would be more expensive than my entire computer! Why is the pricing like that? Is it because overpricing things for enterprises is okay in the minds of the manufacturers? Low supply? Various certification requirements? How come there are no cheaper compatible drive alternatives and everyone must therefore go for the used market? Actually, why haven't most people even heard of tape drives and backups that way - is it because of the pricing that this never got big or even the fact that not many consider doing backups all that well?

smackeyacky 5y ago
Older people who have been IT professionals are familiar with tape. LTO2 drives are pretty cheap and you can buy new tapes. I got mine inside a second hand server I bought, its my go to "last resort" back up mechanism.