Las unidades de cinta externas LTO-2 unidades de cartucho

Finding the Right LTO External Tape Drive

Computer storage media has come a long way its evolution ever since the punch cards and selectron tubes. Among the early media were also the tape drives that can be traced back to the mid-20th century. These were popularly used to store computer data for backup purposes before the floppy disks and hard drives came about. Tape drives differ with the newer storage media in that they provide sequential access rather than direct access to the data. They are commonly used by large commercial operations but can still be used for personal backup needs. When purchasing one, here is what you need to know:

What is LTO in tape drives?

The linear tape open (LTO) is a magnetic tape technology created in the late 1990s by Hewlett Packard (HP), IBM and Seagate. Previously, other proprietary formats were being used to store data. IBM and DEC initiated the LTO technology in the mid-1980s when they put the half height magnetic tapes being used into a single reel, enclosed cartridge. The other companies joined in later on.

The standard form factor of the magnetic cartridge is known as LTO Ultrium. The cartridge comes equipped with a memory chip that enables the tape drives to identify tapes and store data. From the basic LTO-1 and LTO-2 to the more advanced LTO-7 and LTO-8, the generations have evolved to offer faster data transfer rates and higher native and compressed capacity.

What is the difference between native capacity and compressed capacity?

Common terms you will find with regard to storage in tape drives are native capacity and compressed capacity. Both are used to refer to the amount of data that can be stored by the tape drive.

  • Native capacity - Also known as raw capacity, this is the real size available in the tape drive for storage. In other words, it is the amount of data the tape can hold without any compression.
  • Compressed capacity - This is the maximum amount of data the drive can hold after compression. The compressed capacity allows the drive to store much more than it was meant to.

What should you consider when getting a tape drive?

  • Size - The drives come in the half-height and full-height sizes. The former is physically smaller and are also slower in transfer rate than the full-height drives.
  • Capacity - This is the amount of data the tape drive can contain. You should go for one that has sufficient capacity to back up all the data that you need to store. The LTO drives have their native capacity ranging anywhere from 100GB for the LTO-1 to 2.5 TB for the later generations.
  • Data transfer rate - The faster the data transfer rate, the better the overall performance of the tape drive. The LTO-8 offers up to 750 MBps data transfer rates.

Categorías