Magnetic Tape Storage Technology: usage, history, and future outlook

Re:Magnetic Tape Storage Technology: usage, history, and fut... by dale_glass on Sunday June 29, 2025 @02:45PM (#44415337)

One thing that worries me about home tape use is dust and cat hair.

I've had a DDS4 tape way back, which ended up dying, and that could well be the cause. My house is not going to be as clean as a server room.

I've seen tape drives taken apart and there seems to be a worrying lack of concern with any kind of air filtration on the ones I've seen at least. And I don't think it should be all that hard to deal with it. Maybe something like sucking air in through a replaceable filter and exhausting it out of the tape door.

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Re:Magnetic Tape Storage Technology: usage, history, and fut... by 3eb7988a1663 on Sunday June 29, 2025 @03:32PM (#44415675)

Wouldn't a home air filter sitting adjacent to the tape drive remove almost all of that problem?

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Re:Magnetic Tape Storage Technology: usage, history, and fut... by dale_glass on Tuesday July 01, 2025 @05:13AM (#44432039)

Maybe, but it seems to me that the one dust sensitive and very expensive piece of hardware would be not be designed to at least try to minimize the problem.

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