topic Re: LTO Compatibility in Operating System - OpenVMS

LTO Compatibility

Shawn Paul — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:38:54 GMT

Is any one told me that LTO3 tape Cartridge is compatible with LTO2 Tape Drive.

Re: LTO Compatibility

marsh_1 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:40:43 GMT

No, all LTO drives are backward read compatible at least two generations but not forwards !

Re: LTO Compatibility

Hoff — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:46:12 GMT

This question has basically little or nothing to do with OpenVMS, from what I can infer. OpenVMS depends on the drives to deal with this, and AFAIK has no particular control over what the drives permit or deny.

I'm not quite sure how to parse the question, either. But according to the HP table (below) this pair is read and write compatible.

As for web resources, the folks over at Quantum have a tool for determining compatibility for various LTO-series drives. Look in the right navigation at:

http://www.quantum.com/products/tapedrives/ltoultrium/index.aspx

HP has some discussions of media compatibility available on the web as well, including a table in the following QuickSpecs:

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11529_div/11529_div.html

The Ultrium stuff is a particular variety of LTO drive, if you're not already aware of that.

Re: LTO Compatibility

Jon Pinkley — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:36:17 GMT

Shawn,

As Mark Hunt said, LTO3 can't be used with an LT02 tape drive.

From the link Hoff provided:

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11529_div/11529_div.html

LTOx Media LTO2 Drive
LTO1 Media Read/Write
LTO2 Media Read/Write
LTO3 Media Not Compatible
LTO4 Media Not Compatible

See attachment for full matrix, which will not format correctly here.

So the answer to your question is "No, LTO3 Media is not compatible with an LTO2 drive"

When using LTOx media, the capacity will be based on LTOx formatting. If you use LTO2 media in an LT03, you will only get 200GB native (or 400GB with 2/1 compression), not the 400GB native capacity (800GB with 2/1 compression) you will get with LT03 media in an LT03 drive.

Jon