54 TK50 tapes on eBay

[Steven M Jones]

On 05/23/2015 10:04, Mark J. Blair wrote:
> I'd like to get a modern DLT drive for my modern computer backups

The current hotness is LTO (Linear Tape Open), I think LTO-5 gives you 
3.0TB assuming 2:1 compression - and LTO-6 is probably the current flavor.

> (after I sell a few more kidneys, that is)

Careful hunting on eBay can produce LTO-4 capabilities (0.8/1.6TB) for 
not too many vital organs. Just make sure you've got a fibre channel or 
SAS interface to talk to it.

> ... but I'm still a bit suspicious of their similar (identical?) tape feeding scheme. All of my bad experience with things like QIC, DAT, etc. had led me to be very suspicious of tape systems other than 1/2" open reel.

If you take a careful look at the TK and DLT mechanisms, I think you'll 
see that they're an awful lot closer to an open reel design than any of 
the cartridge designs (QIC, DAT, 8mm, AIT, etc).

I'd never say they're perfect because that would immediately render all 
my backups on any media unreadable. But if I have to trust a tape 
mechanism, I'll stick with the TK-DLT-LTO line.

--S.