tape backup for cold storage?

Question

tape backup for cold storage?

it was a tossup as to whether this belonged in the hardware area, or this area.

I chose FCP area since this is likely the place where more people have need of huge backup solutions. My apologies if this is incorrect.

Just curious tok now what those of you with huge amounts of cold storage are doing for a backup solution?

hard drives have become so cheap and huge that I haven't had need of a solution larger than HD in many years, but now my work with FCP and tons of terabytes of data are challenging that.

Is tape still the best way to make that happen?

If so, I'd appreciate some recommendations on which devices you think would work best

If not, same thing- would appreciate some suggestions as well.

thanks!

Final Cut Pro X, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), 32gig ram, 2009 mac pro

Posted on Jun 29, 2015 3:11 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 29, 2015 8:33 AM in response to RayFixesStuff

Do you mean videotape or LDT?

Define cold storage.

Probably a better google search for long term data archiving systems. My company still uses LDT for some archiving functions at our hot site, a disaster recovery data operation.

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Answer 2

Jun 29, 2015 8:49 AM in response to David Bogie Chq-1

my last experience with tape is the old dat drives from the 90's - so i honestly don't know what format.

i started with google, but given the amount of options I felt it was wise to have someone with the experience , who may have tried various types of storage units, to help me see their path of expereince and what worked well and what didn't.

for instance - even if a drive says "GREAT FOR MAC!", that might just be the marketing department's idea and the real world experience might be totally opposite/different. so I was hoping to get some feedback from people who have tried and figured out what's best so I can avoid as much of that as possible and get right to what works.

as the old saying goes: any fool can learn from their own mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

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Answer 3

TomWheel

Level 2

406 points

Jun 29, 2015 9:12 AM in response to RayFixesStuff

An excellent source of information on current tape drive backup products are three reviews by Larry Jordan over the last year. Here (https://larryjordan.com/articles/product-review-thundertape-2-from-1-beyond-inc/) is a link to one of the reviews, and a Google search for tape drive backup reviews by Larry Jordan will easily turn up the other two reviews. Larry Jordan is a well known Final Cut Pro trainer and his reviews are honest, through, and have been quite useful to me. I believe you will find these reviews of considerable help if you are considering a tape drive backup solution.

Tom

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Answer 4

BenB

Level 6

12,103 points

Jun 29, 2015 10:18 AM in response to RayFixesStuff

LTO tape is what you're looking for. And there are solutions that build metadata catalogs of what's on what tape for easy management. Some have specific FCPX interface to make things even easier. Take Larry Jordan with a grain of salt, do your own homework on top of that, because Larry isn't a technician, has no IT background or training, and gets some technical details wrong. This coming from a retired IT engineer. But yes, LTO tape is the most reliable, long term archive solution, still.

http://ltotapedrive.nl/en/nieuws/final-cut-pro-x-archiware-p5-and-the-use-of-lto -tape

http://1beyond.com/product-categories/lto-tape-archive-and-backup-systems-discov ery-ezprep-lto-solution

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Answer 5

Jun 29, 2015 10:53 AM in response to BenB

LTO? New flavor of LDT? Times change, men don't.

Thanks for those links, Ben.

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