Backblaze Hard Drive Stats for 2020

Re:Backblaze Hard Drive Stats for 2020 by dehrmann on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @12:33PM (#25918718)

What do you think the availability of LTO 6 drives will be in 10 years? The major benefit of SATA, and even Bluray, is the interface and drive will likely still exist in 10 years.

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Re:Backblaze Hard Drive Stats for 2020 by fl0wenol on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @04:32PM (#25921327)

I'm still able to interface with an LTO 1 tape drive. It's all SCSI or SAS. Secondary markets like Ebay have made this surprisingly affordable (used drive, unopened older media).

LTO is nice in that they mandate backwards compatibility by two revisions, which come out once every 3 years or so. So that gives you time to roll forward to new media onto a new drive without breaking the bank, and giving time for the secondary market to settle.

Adding: This was a deliberate decision by the LTO Consortium; they wanted users to perceive LTO as the safest option for data retention standards.

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Re:Backblaze Hard Drive Stats for 2020 by _jal on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @12:54PM (#25918988)

Given that you can buy LTO-1 (commercialized in 2000) drives and tapes today, and given the size of the market, I suspect they'll be around.

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Re:Backblaze Hard Drive Stats for 2020 by cptskippy on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @01:02PM (#25919092)

LTO 6 is like 10 years old, so the availability in 10 years will probably be limited. That being said, LTO 7 drives are able to read LTO 6 so that might increase your chances.

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