[geeks] tape backup, revisited

[Micah R Ledbetter]

On Jun 16, 2007, at 20:12, Phil Stracchino wrote:

> Actually, I just checked, and LTO-2 is even better ...  brand new  
> 200GB
> (uncompressed) LTO-2 tapes can be had for $35.  That's $175 per  
> terabyte
> for LTO-2 tape, compared to $220 per terabyte for disk at your quoted
> price point.
>
> ...And in fact, I just found LTO-2 tapes for $28 at another vendor
> ($140/terabyte) and LTO-3 tapes (400GB native capacity, uncompressed)
> for $45, which is about $112.50 per terabyte.  And the vendor offers
> volume discounts off *that*.

Wow. How expensive are the tape drives?

I've always thought that tape was pretty cool just because you could  
have a ROBOT[0] to load your library for you :). Never had one, though.

  - Micah

[0] Don't forget to have multiple backup systems in place, if you're  
using robots[1].
[1] http://www.xkcd.com/c251.html, and don't forget to read the alt- 
text.