The problem is it's near impossible to get a tape backup system at home.
It's all fun to say "oh a single tape can do 15TB" but it must cost in the thousands and thousands of dollars.
It's all fun to say "oh a single tape can do 15TB" but it must cost in the thousands and thousands of dollars.
I remember when I was younger, I got a single SCSI external tape drive, and some tapes, from the Micro Center in Cincinnati Ohio. I then used that to back up my computer while I was in college. I've forgotten so many of the details, like the model of drive and tape, and the backup software (it was Mac OS). I do know it wasn't LTO, though, because it had to be rewound.
These days, were I to do something like that, I'd do BD-R. Yeah, you're only talking 50 GB or so (uncompressed) per disc, but that's not bad!
Linux even had a driver for it at some point (ftape), but IIRC it has since been removed due to lack of use. Never used it though, by the time I got more into Linux that drive was already obsolete.
But yeah, today the startup cost of a tape drive is so high that it doesn't make sense for home usage. At home I use borg backup (https://www.borgbackup.org/ ) nowadays, backing up to external USB hard drives.
Tried to use it on an old p3 box with win95, and was utterly surprised that win95 backup application had support for generic backup tape drives that allowed me to restore the tape content.
I also love the super smooth mechanical sounds of tape drives, even at the cost of slow seek.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArVid
Danmere Backer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUS0Zv2APjU (LGR)