> 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

> 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?