Dell Ultrium 1 LTO, 100GB tape reader

vjrt2311 · 2012-05-04T13:39:27.000Z

We have these Dell Ultrium 1 LTO, 100GB/200GB tape drives. Which external tape readers can we buy to be able to read these tapes ?

tbasham · 2012-05-04T13:45:39.000Z

Best bet might be someplace like this:

Backupworks.com - Data Storage Solutions, Tape, Disk, NAS and SAN Solutions

Visit Backupworks, we have a huge selection of LTO Ultrium Tape Drives, new, reconditioned and refurbished. Everything from LTO-1, LTO-2, LTO-3 and LTO-4 Tape drives, internal, external, full height, half height, drive and autoloader. 6 Month...

Or eBay. From what I see most newer LTO3/4/5 drives will only go back to LTO2 media not 1.

vjrt2311 · 2012-05-04T14:07:33.000Z

Rookie question:

Does all external tape drives read these tapes ? or we need to look for

some specific ones only ? If YES what is that we need to look in the external tape drive to be able to read them .

tbasham · 2012-05-04T14:21:23.000Z

No, not all external LTO tape drives will read from LTO 1 tapes. From what I can tell you need to be looking for a LTO 2 or 1 drive, as the newer LTO 3/4/5 drives do not have backwards compatibility for the LTO 1 tapes.

Here are some examples:

Backupworks.com - Data Storage Solutions, Tape, Disk, NAS and SAN Solutions

DW017A HP DW017A DW017B 378468-001 StorageWorks Ultrium 448 Ext. Half-Height...

HP DW017A DW017B 378468-001 StorageWorks Ultrium 448 External Half-Height LTO-2 200/400GB LVD SCSI Tape Drive. Reconditioned / Six Month Warranty.

http://www.backupworks.com/Reconditioned-HP-Q1520A-ExternalLTO2.aspx

http://www.backupworks.com/hpdw065adw065bstorageworksultrium232externalhalf-heightlto-1100200gblvdscsitapedrivereconditionedsixmonthwarranty.aspx

vjrt2311 · 2012-05-04T15:19:14.000Z

tbasham_mai,

Does the tape readers are USB enabled ? can I plug into any windows XP PC and make it work ?

Or do they need SCSI card on our PC to install the tape readers ?

tbasham · 2012-05-04T15:44:05.000Z

Most of what I’ve seen for external tape drives is that they are SCSI, you might be able too hit up Google and see what you can find for LTO 1/2 USB tape drives.

Also, if you are trying to read from the tapes, you’ll need to have the backup software that originally wrote the backup to them most likely.

vjrt2311 · 2012-05-08T09:25:48.000Z

We found a old Dell PowerEdge 1600SC server which has the following tape drive.

Internal: PowerVault 100T TR40, PowerVault 100T DDS4, PowerVault 110T
DLT VS80

Can the above tape drive read the following tapes:

Dell Ultrium 1 LTO, 100GB/200GB tapes

tbasham · 2012-05-08T09:31:57.000Z

A quick search of Dell’s support site says no.

simonanderson5997 · 2012-08-07T08:49:53.000Z

LTO tape drives are write/read backward compatible one generation and are read backwards two generations:

LTO-5 tape drives can write/read to LTO-5 & LTO-4 media but can only read LTO-3 media.

LTO-4 tape drives can write/read to LTO-4 & LTO-3 media but can only read LTO-2 media.

LTO-3 tape drives can write/read to LTO-3 & LTO-2 media but can only read LTO-1 media.

LTO-2 tape drives can write/read to LTO-2 & LTO-1 media.

LTO-1 tape drives can write/read to LTO-1 media.

simonanderson5997 · 2012-08-07T09:20:04.000Z

Please note that LTO (Linear Tape Open) is an industry standard and is an open technology, as such you users can purchase LTO tape drive and tape media products from multiple different vendors. Tandberg Data is the only provider of tape and disk data protection solutions for SMB’s.