> I'm not "bashing" tapes Oh, this wasn't pointed at you at all, sorry for the misunderstanding. > Given the massive expense of tape drives and the fact you n

> I'm not "bashing" tapes Oh, this wasn't pointed at you at all, sorry for the misunderstanding. > Given the massive expense of tape drives and the fact you need to keep replacing them and the tapes just to keep up with new LTO standards Well, you don't need to keep replacing them. The rolling upgrade (gradually replacing the tapes and drives for a new generation) makes sense only if you have tens to hundreds of drives and thousands and thousands of tapes - ie for those insane enterprise libraries. For everything else, be it a small enterprise or a "mere mortals" it would be always cheaper to just buy a whole new library/autoloader. And if the cost of initial buyout is too much then of course tapes aren't for you... along with the compatibility woes.