which Tape Drive?

chrislip · 2 Jul 2009 at 13:13

I have an LTO 1 and a DLT-V4 that I acquired from some old servers, problem is which one is better? I know the DLT will get up to 160GB on a tape and is quicker on the SCSI bus (160 as opposed to 80 MB/sec) and the LTO only 100GB but I believe that LTO is more reliable. This is only for my home PC so is not Mission Critical, but before I put one of them on flea-bay I would just like to get some rcommendations on which to keep. My rig has 500 GB space but about 1/3 of that is free

Thanks

dhill · 2 Jul 2009 at 13:24

How about sell them both on flea-bay and buy yourself a nice large external hard drive to back up onto instead.

But, if I had to choose between the two, hmmmmm.....LTO is probably more reliable, but youll get more data on the DLT. Swings and roundabouts at the end of the day I would think mate.

Richard_16v · 2 Jul 2009 at 13:41

Have you go any media? Look into the media costs as these can sometimes be a shock!

m4cc45 · 2 Jul 2009 at 16:09

Nothing wrong with the DLT at all in terms of reliability. Make sure you have adequate tapes and give it a clean now and again.

I wouldn't trust my data on an external hard-drive as its a single point of failure - meaning if that gets stolen / damaged you're knackered.

M.

Dist · 2 Jul 2009 at 16:12

Can the same not be said for tape drives too? If the tape gets stolen or damaged then it is no different from an external HDD getting stolen or damaged.

Sin_Chase · 2 Jul 2009 at 16:21

Dist said:
Can the same not be said for tape drives too? If the tape gets stolen or damaged then it is no different from an external HDD getting stolen or damaged.

You have more than 1 tape.

I have clients who only just recently came off DLT having been using it for backup for years and year. Solid as long as you store and handle tapes with respect.

malman · 2 Jul 2009 at 16:24

yeah but you don't generally just have one tape (although I have seen this)

To the OP

LTO 1 is 100Gb native 200 Gb compressed
DLT IV is 40Gb native (max depends on drive model) 80 compressed

Media can be expensive LTO1 > DLT IV generally

the DLT 160Gb drives were either SLDT or DLTVS different drive to a DLT IV drives

m4cc45 · 2 Jul 2009 at 16:28

Dist said:
Can the same not be said for tape drives too? If the tape gets stolen or damaged then it is no different from an external HDD getting stolen or damaged.

As said above. The initial backup is archived away for safety then you can do the same with the daily / weeklys depending on the data. The problem with the HDD is that you have it there constantly. If you have a fire, then it's gone where as the tape is offsite somewhere.

M.

Burnsy2023 · 2 Jul 2009 at 16:29

I would stick with the LTO drive, I've never had issues with reliability.

dhill · 2 Jul 2009 at 16:39

Bearing in mind that this is for his home pc, and as such is mission critical.

As such, I cant see that he would go to the trouble of taking tapes offsite each day. Thats why I suggested a external harddrive.

#Chri5# · 2 Jul 2009 at 16:51

malman said:
yeah but you don't generally just have one tape (although I have seen this)

To the OP

LTO 1 is 100Gb native 200 Gb compressed
DLT IV is 40Gb native (max depends on drive model) 80 compressed

Media can be expensive LTO1 > DLT IV generally

the DLT 160Gb drives were either SLDT or DLTVS different drive to a DLT IV drives

DLT-V4 is different from DLT IV. DLT-V4 is 160/320 and the media is £30+ a tape.

LTO-1 media can be had for around £20 a tape.

malman · 2 Jul 2009 at 17:07

I stand corrected.

Stopped using DLT at IV as the drives don't hold up in customer environments. Ours last 4 + years. Ones onsite require attention from 18 month on. Thats down to our type of customer base (dirty environments) though so other people will get better mileage. Finding LTO to be superior at so far at coping with dust etc.

iaind · 3 Jul 2009 at 07:47

My 2p - A tape drive is utterly pointless for a home setup, sell them both, but an external HDD or 2 and drink the rest of the cash

Richard_16v · 3 Jul 2009 at 10:53

I have to agree

Even if the tape drive is free, to backup say a 500GB drive you will need a couple of tapes which is the price of a 500GB external drive, if you are going to have more than 1 copy for security then you will spend enough for another external drive.