DLT Tapes

[Adam Marcucci]

Can anyone tell me the lifespan of a DLT tape?

[Eugeny Brychkov]

http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/products/storagemedia/tape_dlt/faqs.html
Eugeny

[Adam Marcucci]

thanks a lot. i have one furthur question though:

it says that they have been tested for over 10,000 passes. any idea roughly how many mounts that would be?

[Eugeny Brychkov · Accepted solution]

"How long do DLT tapes last?

Because of the tape and drive design, HP DLT tapes are tested for 500,000 head passes, over 10,000 cartridge uses, and have an archival life of 20 years"

You know that DLT is digital linear tape and head is moving linearly and multiple tracking is achieved by moving head up and down, thus in one direction 500,000 passes of head is tested, and 10,000 loads/unloads are tested. Uses means loads/pulling/unloads
Eugeny

[Bob_196]

Approx 100 backups

[Jeffrey Willemsen]

I repair DLT drives and out of experience i can tell you the lifespan of DLT tapes is far better then any other format available at this moment. Even when i use it very much in a lot of drives they degrade slowly. Some tapes are in use for almost three years now. Once in a while i degauss them ...

Jeffrey