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I'm still looking for an affordable external tape drive. There's RDX but their tapes seem a lot more expensive per TB. e.g. LTO 3TB costs 30 EUR RDX 2TB costs

I'm still looking for an affordable external tape drive. There's RDX but their tapes seem a lot more expensive per TB. e.g. LTO 3TB costs 30 EUR RDX 2TB costs 265 EUR

svennek 3y ago
RDX is diskbased, not tape based (that is the D in the name).. https://buy.hpe.com/us/en/storage/disk-storage-systems/removable-disk-backup/c/3755725 https://buy.hpe.com/us/en/storage/disk-storage-systems/remov...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Hamuko 3y ago
I've considered getting an external Blu-ray writer and just a bunch of quality inorganic blank discs as a tape alternative archiving solution.
- layer8 3y ago
  You might want to consider M-Discs.
  - Hamuko 3y ago
    AFAIK, M-Discs don't really make a that much of a difference if you're not dealing with DVDs.
    - a20eac1d 3y ago
      Do you mean in comparison to regular BDXL Blurays?
      - Hamuko 3y ago
        Basically all non-LTH BDs. The way I've understood it, the big selling point in M-Disc DVDs vs. regular DVDs was the inorganic dye used in it. But if you buy a non-LTH BD, you'll have an inorganic dye anyways. The company that actually made M-Discs also went bust and there's a lot of conflicting information on the Internet whether or not the current M-Discs are real M-Discs or not.
- a20eac1d 3y ago
  That's exactly what I've been looking into lately. Did you have any specific discs in mind? I recently bought "Sony Blu-ray BD-R XL 128GB", but I couldn't find any info whether its organic or inorganic.
  - TacticalCoder 3y ago
    Any external BluRay reader/writer you'd recommend? (which supports disks from 25 GB up to the 128 GB you mention)?
  - Hamuko 3y ago
    The way I've understood it is that BDs are inorganic as long as you don't buy LTH discs.
    - a20eac1d 3y ago
      Are all LTH discs marked on the package or how do I find out if my Bluray discs are LTH?
      - Hamuko 3y ago
        It should note somewhere that they're LTH discs since they're fundamentally quite different from normal HTL discs.
throw0101a 3y ago
Define "affordable". Lots of LTO-6 drives available for less than US$ 1000: * https://www.ebay.com/b/LTO-6-Tape-Data-Cartridge-Drives/39976/bn_7115824809 https://www.ebay.com/b/LTO-6-Tape-Data-Cartridge-Drives/3997... Here's an eight-slot SAS library: * https://www.ebay.com/itm/385724855188 https://www.ebay.com/itm/385724855188
- Dylan16807 3y ago
  If you intend for your tapes to fit in the library, 20TB for $1000+$200 does not qualify as affordable. It's reasonably possible to hit a target of 2x hard drive cost with loose tapes but you need a lot of data. And trying to match the price of hard drives with $10/TB tapes will require piles of data and piles of tapes.
tomjen3 3y ago
Same issue for me. I need to archive a bunch of data once or twice, put the tape on a shelf in my parents home and then I don't plan to do anything with it unless my NAS self destructs. Ideally I would be able to rent a tape drive, even if it costs 100 dollars per day it wouldn't really matter.

I'm still looking for an affordable external tape drive. There's RDX but their tapes seem a lot more expensive per TB. e.g. LTO 3TB costs 30 EUR RDX 2TB costs 265 EUR

svennek 3y ago

RDX is diskbased, not tape based (that is the D in the name).. https://buy.hpe.com/us/en/storage/disk-storage-systems/removable-disk-backup/c/3755725 https://buy.hpe.com/us/en/storage/disk-storage-systems/remov...

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Hamuko 3y ago

I've considered getting an external Blu-ray writer and just a bunch of quality inorganic blank discs as a tape alternative archiving solution.

layer8 3y ago
You might want to consider M-Discs.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  AFAIK, M-Discs don't really make a that much of a difference if you're not dealing with DVDs.
  - a20eac1d 3y ago
    Do you mean in comparison to regular BDXL Blurays?
    - Hamuko 3y ago
      Basically all non-LTH BDs. The way I've understood it, the big selling point in M-Disc DVDs vs. regular DVDs was the inorganic dye used in it. But if you buy a non-LTH BD, you'll have an inorganic dye anyways. The company that actually made M-Discs also went bust and there's a lot of conflicting information on the Internet whether or not the current M-Discs are real M-Discs or not.
a20eac1d 3y ago
That's exactly what I've been looking into lately. Did you have any specific discs in mind? I recently bought "Sony Blu-ray BD-R XL 128GB", but I couldn't find any info whether its organic or inorganic.
- TacticalCoder 3y ago
  Any external BluRay reader/writer you'd recommend? (which supports disks from 25 GB up to the 128 GB you mention)?
- Hamuko 3y ago
  The way I've understood it is that BDs are inorganic as long as you don't buy LTH discs.
  - a20eac1d 3y ago
    Are all LTH discs marked on the package or how do I find out if my Bluray discs are LTH?
    - Hamuko 3y ago
      It should note somewhere that they're LTH discs since they're fundamentally quite different from normal HTL discs.

throw0101a 3y ago

Define "affordable". Lots of LTO-6 drives available for less than US$ 1000: * https://www.ebay.com/b/LTO-6-Tape-Data-Cartridge-Drives/39976/bn_7115824809 https://www.ebay.com/b/LTO-6-Tape-Data-Cartridge-Drives/3997... Here's an eight-slot SAS library: * https://www.ebay.com/itm/385724855188 https://www.ebay.com/itm/385724855188

Dylan16807 3y ago
If you intend for your tapes to fit in the library, 20TB for $1000+$200 does not qualify as affordable. It's reasonably possible to hit a target of 2x hard drive cost with loose tapes but you need a lot of data. And trying to match the price of hard drives with $10/TB tapes will require piles of data and piles of tapes.

tomjen3 3y ago

Same issue for me. I need to archive a bunch of data once or twice, put the tape on a shelf in my parents home and then I don't plan to do anything with it unless my NAS self destructs. Ideally I would be able to rent a tape drive, even if it costs 100 dollars per day it wouldn't really matter.