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Got this link off of Hackaday. I've thought about it and after reading this, it's looking do-able.
https://benpettis.com/blog/lto-misadventuresLOL - I stopped dealing with tape *at work* over 15 years ago...
I won't lie, tape has its advantages:
- longevity (w/ proper storage)
- capacity
- reliability (a good tape reader/writer is indestructible)
- it's surprisingly universal w/ open-source tools to read/write to it.
- the underlying tech is nearly as old as digital computing itself.OTOH, it's got three disadvantages:
- The good gear and tapes are quite expensive
- It's slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow (everything is written sequentially.)It is doable, but I would strongly suggest an extra tape drive, a backed-up copy of the software to use it, and a backup/testing schedule that you stick to religiously (doesn't have to be every day, but it should be at least quarterly, with sample retrievals at least once a year.)
And thanks again @pooper. Today was my breakfast-with-the-guys followed by a bit of shopping and I stopped in at my computer guy's place. We had a long chat and he showed me some equipment he'd gotten from a government office that had amalgamated it's IT stuff with another office somewhere else. As he went through it I could see cost and complication going up. I don't really trulio have THAT much stuff. Even my porn and scan collection fits on a modest hard drive. I have several 8Tb drives I bought before prices went ballistic, plus portable caddies. He suggested that I get a Sabrent brand drive caddie too for all my older but still serviceable drives.
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