LTO Tape Backup

MiniDV Tape Backup

LTO Tape Backup

Store anywhere from 500GBs, or even 6.25 Terabytes of information on $35 tapes. That's nearly 1-2 cents per gigabyte! LTO tapes are a cheap and long-lasting data archival solution for video editors, webserver admins, or online archivists.

Here's a great overview of the LTO format and how it benefits video production, or virtually anyone who needs to safely store hundreds of gigabytes of data for decades to come.

Choosing an LTO Type

Since LTO Drives were designed for the server market, it will be difficult to buy a drive as an individual; let alone at prices less than $100.

On the other hand, since organizations toss waves of old electronics all the time; you can easily find an LTO-3 (400/600GB) tape drive for $50 on eBay, and even less at your local surplus store. This is more than enough for a small-time archivist, and you can upgrade anytime. So choose the LTO level that fits your needs:

• LTO-3 (400/600GB)
  • Tapes: $15 each
  • Drives: ~$50-80 (used)
• LTO-4 (800GB)
  • Tapes: $20 each
  • Drives: ~$150-375 (used)
• LTO-5 (1.5/3TB)
  • Tapes: $30-40 each
  • Drives: ~$300 (used), ~$1,000-2,000 (new)
• LTO-6 (2.5/6.25TB)
  • Tapes: $50 each
  • Drives: $500 (used), ~$3,500 (new)

Here's a comparison chart.

Hooking up an LTO Drive

Now that you have an LTO Drive and some tapes; you need to use special adapters and cables to hook it server-grade SAS to a typical computer. Unfortunately, this can be somewhat difficult. But that's why this guide exists.

• Desktops - It is significantly easier and cheaper to find a PCI adapter card than a laptop one, since many servers are based on PCI-Express anyway. And it's not like your tape drive or the library is portable anyway, so grab a cheap desktop and plug in one of these cards.
  • SCSI
  • SAS to PCI - An expansion card that gives your computer the ability to use SAS drives.
    • HP Smart Array P411 - A great card for desktops. If you can find one. HP makes a wide range of variants, so check the Model Comparison list under it for more info. Most of these cards require Full size SAS to Mini SAS adapters, which should only cost an extra $20.
    • HP Smart Array P400 - An older generation of the above. Since we're no server junkies, this should be good enough for most people.
    • $20 - SPlusDirect - HP Smart Array P400 RAID
• Laptops - It can be a challenge to connect SAS to a laptop.
  • SCSI - Not sure how to interface with this ancient protocol.
  • SAS to Expresscard - The most popular method. Instructions here.
  • $3,500 - MLogic MTape LTO-6
  • Sal Guarisco's LTO Drive Connection System
  • SAS to PCI to PE4C Bridge - Info here? If you happen to have a PE4C bridge from an eGPU, the best method is to grab one of the HP SmartArray desktop PCI cards and plug them into the Expresscard bridge. Otherwise, don't bother, a PE4C costs $90.
• Thunderbolt - If you have a recent Macbook, a Mac Mini, or even some high-end gaming desktop motherboards, they all come with Intel Thunderbolt, a convenient PCIe plug.
  • But if you don't need a whole desktop, get Intel's Thunderbolt-equipped Next Unit of Computing (DC3217BY for $225 kit, D33217CK for $140 board-only), a full Desktop on a chip+CPU. It's the exact same hardware as a Mac Mini, just cheaper.
  • SAS to Thunderbolt - The fastest, easiest method.

And no, you can't just hook up SAS to a SATA port. They are different protocols.

Storing Data

Now that your drive is set up, what format do you store data in?

We strongly recommend that you use free open-source tools and filesystems, such as LTFS. Everything else costs thousands of dollars, and might not last as long as your tapes will.

• LTFS

Tape Tips

Remember that Tapes are a sequential access technology, unlike random-access hard drives. Therefore, tapes should be used for archival, not day-to-day usage.

You dump your massive files in, and put the tape on the shelf when it's full. If you ever need to access the files again (perhaps after your hard drive got corrupted, or just to look at previous records), that's when you reach for the tape.