If you don’t have a massive amount of data to backup, used LTO5/6 drives are quite cheap, software and drivers is another issue however with a lot of enterprise kit.
The problem ofc is that with a tape you need to also have a backup tape drive on hand.
Overall if you get a good deal you can have a reliable backup setup for less than $1000 with 2 drives and a bunch of tape.
But this is only good if you have single digit of TBs or low double digit of TBs to backup since it’s slow and with a single tape drive you’ll have to swap tapes manually.
LTO5 is 1.5TB and LTO6 is 2.5TB (more with compression) it should be enough for most people.
> But this is only good if you have single digit of TBs or low double digit of TBs
That's not so enticing when I could get 3 16TB hard drives for half the price, with a full copy on each drive plus some par3 files in case of bad sectors.
You could, it’s really a question of what your needs are and what your backup strategy is.
Most people don’t have that much data to back up, I don’t backup movies and shows I download because I can always rebuild the library from scratch I only backup stuff I create, so personal photos, videos etc.
I’m not using a tape backup either, cloud backup is enough for me its cheap as long as you focus your backups to what matters the most.
The problem ofc is that with a tape you need to also have a backup tape drive on hand.
Overall if you get a good deal you can have a reliable backup setup for less than $1000 with 2 drives and a bunch of tape.
But this is only good if you have single digit of TBs or low double digit of TBs to backup since it’s slow and with a single tape drive you’ll have to swap tapes manually.
LTO5 is 1.5TB and LTO6 is 2.5TB (more with compression) it should be enough for most people.