Tape Backup - LTO5

Jarek Zabczynski

Jarek Zabczynski

Veteran
So I'm considering finally getting a tape backup system. I have enough data that I need a longterm solution for all of it. Currently I keep everything on pairs of matching bare SATA drives. Every couple years I've been buying larger ones and consolidating my data and pretty much keep the same space footprint, selling the smaller ones on ebay. Two copies of everything is great, and nice to be able to pop a drive into my drive caddy and I'm up and running with whatever footage I need. However there's still the risk of failure. I want a tape solution on top of this. Looking at LTO5. 1.5TB native capacity seems perfect. I looked at LTO4 but I might as well go with current tech for better futureproofing.

Looking at this drive in particular. Quantum TC-L52BN-AR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16840121083

It's a SAS external. $2,500 isn't too bad for something like this.

Any thoughts would be great. I've never used a tape backup.
 
Just checked out the Cache-A systems. While they look fantastic, they start at $7,000+. The way I see it, I can get an external LTO-5 drive and SAS card fir under $3k. I keep everything on drives, the tape backup would be my failsafe.
 
It is true that 99.99% of the planet's most valuable data is (short-term) backed up and (long-term) archived on digital mag tape like LTO, et.al.

OTOH, with the cost of hard drive capacity steadily decreasing almost daily, it continues to make mag tape less attractive. And then there is the fact that the internet has gotten fast enough so that online backup is a viable alternative. In fact, I believe those some of the major factors that caused the disappearance of the low-to-mid range tape products, leaving only the high-price spread.

I am continuing to use the hard drive method that Mr. Zabczynski described. HOWEVER note that using pairs of identical drives is rather like aiming the gun at your own foot. I use two drives of different brands to ensure that any batch failures don't wipe out the entire contents.
 
Jarek Zabczynski said:
Just checked out the Cache-A systems. While they look fantastic, they start at $7,000+. The way I see it, I can get an external LTO-5 drive and SAS card fir under $3k. I keep everything on drives, the tape backup would be my failsafe.
Click to expand...

And you can use that same SAS card to connect to a high speed drive array. If you get a host card that supports RAID 5, you can have tape backup and drive speeds of 500GB/second or more.
 
Richard Crowley said:
I use two drives of different brands to ensure that any batch failures don't wipe out the entire contents.
Click to expand...

Clever, honestly not something I've taken into consideration.

I've also been considering just getting simple raid5 tower or a drobopro and filling it with 3TB drives. Would be enough to keep all my data on it as a 3rd backup. The plus side would be that I would be able to have on-line access to everything when called for. Additionally with the drobo, I can swap for larger drives as they come out.
 
Richard Crowley said:
It is true that 99.99% of the planet's most valuable data is (short-term) backed up and (long-term) archived on digital mag tape like LTO, et.al.

OTOH, with the cost of hard drive capacity steadily decreasing almost daily, it continues to make mag tape less attractive. And then there is the fact that the internet has gotten fast enough so that online backup is a viable alternative. In fact, I believe those some of the major factors that caused the disappearance of the low-to-mid range tape products, leaving only the high-price spread.

I am continuing to use the hard drive method that Mr. Zabczynski described. HOWEVER note that using pairs of identical drives is rather like aiming the gun at your own foot. I use two drives of different brands to ensure that any batch failures don't wipe out the entire contents.
Click to expand...
Same here. I just buy bigger and bigger drives. I get one Hitachi 2TB and one Samsung 2Tb and cross my toes.
 
I'm also considering getting a LTO5 drive for backups to replace my harddrive backups and found this thread. But I am wondering, how do you connect an external tape drive to a MacBookPro?
Also I don't agree with those who claims that hard drive backups are cheaper. If you have 20TB or more to back up, investing in a tape drive becomes very interesting. 1.5TB cartridges cost about $40, 2TB drives still cost at least $300. So at 20TB you're looking at $2000 for the drive and $500 for the cartridges, makes $2500 in total. When backup up 20TB on drives you're looking at $3000.
 
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