Despite seeing and enjoying your earlier tape video I somehow missed this one. Nice going with the installation and networking. ngl as an apartment dweller I’m envious of your cool “computer lab” setup with all the systems lined up behind you
Yeah I have quite a few WD's in general. I have lost some, but I have many still going strong, all the way back to 40gb. Tho, I don't use the 40's anymore, so who knows if they'd still hold up to everyday use, haha.
Nah, it has a fan built into it. Cooling is something I considered. The drive was sketchy from day 1. I bought a lemon and didn't know cause it was my first drive and had no idea what proper operation was like. The replacement drive, that does not have a fan, has been smooth and reliable since.
@@DATT I have a LTO5 drive HP 3280, full height, in its intended external enclosure, and it has a BIG and LOUD fan at the back. These things need cooling!
@@RunTheTape Warm, not alarmingly so. Not enough to worry. I forget how, but there is def airflow thru the drive. I don't want tooo much as it'll build up dust fast. I seem to have just the right amount I feel.
I suppose. Not sure how to implement that. I've had it over a year so far. These tapes are rated for 30 years so 1 year isn't much a test. I should probably write a test tape, and use that, I don't want to mess with my proper tapes as running them does wear them. Mind you, I do have some tapes I use for temp backup. Does my copies of raw camera footage rust intend to delete and over write once that project is complete. I could use I've of those. But really, I think a vid of this nature could take a couple more years to do right.
It's hard to say, I kind of just rolled the dice on ebay. My first drive was a fail, my second one has been great. I only got one cause I have tonnes of data to archive doing this youtube thing. I otherwise typically wouldn't recommend one for the causal user.
How much did you pay for that drive? You don't need crossover cables anymore, if your PCs support Gigabit, you are fine Thanks for the series, nice introduction to tape drives :)
Like run a drive off the built on Sata ? No drives that I'm aware of work on normal Sata. Or are you talking about how the connector was different on this drive ? Seems the newer SAS connectors are all that larger type. Probably to stop people from accidentally plugging it into a normal Sata for, for whatever reason, I don't know that it's harmful, just won't work.
@@DATT I'm not clear what you meant. You did take a SAS drive and attach it via SATA to the PC, correct? Do you have any idea on which series of drives one can do that? Everything I read said that you cannot connect SAS to a SATA interface, but you've proven that clearly, that's not always true.
@@DATT Oh! So I misunderstood? You're using a SAS HBA? It looked like you were inserting a SATA cable onto the drive. BTW, Quantum makes some SATA versions of LTO drives.
@@bradkaral1188 Yup, it's running on a SAS HBA, ahhh, earlier gen SAS cards used the exact same kind of cable as SATA. So it's an easy confusion to make. The SAS HBA's at the time could run SATA drives even.
Hey I recently received my hp lto-6 drive when I plug it in the ready indicator light turns on like it is ready but the driver keeps saying no lto drive registered. Do you have any possible fix for this because you're the expert on lto here on RUclips
Hah, not sure I would say I'm an expert on them but... Hard to say from here. If you're sure you have the correct driver, then I'd look at your controller card, make sure you have the driver for it. There must be a communication error.
If one writes without issue and the other can read and write why not just keep both and use them both for writing data at up to twice the speed. You only need one drive to read them back
I do pretty much as u. I went to school for video production. And I have made videos. But i havent uploaded them to the web. But I'm the same predicament as u. I keep all my project files. And I have about 2 tb worth of stuff. So I looked at ur channel about tape drives. Which was super helpful. But I think I am gonna stick to buring my data on blue ray Discs. Blue Ray's have come down in price. Those tripple layer blue ray discs are running $60 for 10 of them. And they hold 100 gb on a disc. And it is that mdisc media too that is stable for 1000 years. I think I'm gonna opt for that method. The tape drive seems promising there seems to be too many problems. Greetings from the USA. I subscribed to ur channel. Love ur content
I looked into Blue Ray, it wasn't for me. I can general a TB a month at the scale I'm operating, and most of my projects are like 60-120 gb. Many wouldn't fit on one disk. These Tapes are 800gb and cost me less than $10 cdn. Also, stuff's more expensive in Canada. So that's way better economy, and it'll take up less room overall. For you tho, it does sound like it'd make sense. Bare in mind, the problems I'm having are half, cause I'm working with cheap used equipment, and half cause I didn't know what I was doing. Was kind of figuring it out as I go along in these videos. Thanks for the Sub !
Ah, well that's not what I have. Pretty much scraped this together with parts I could find used. I considered fiber channel, but I didn't quite understand it that well at the time. I already had a SAS card, so that steered my direction. Funny thing, in the next vid, my SAS card fails. In the end, this rig's been working great for me since.
@@DATT Well, the nice thing about FC is that it basically is SAS/SCSI over fibre with some neat features like the possibility to access the same device from multiple hosts (or even use multiple backup connections). Which means, you wouldn't need any server for that purpose, just a FC HBA in every PC/workstation you would want to back up. And you would see that backup device on each of these PC's like if it would be local SAS/SATA/SCSI device. There are even boxes which you can plug into the FC network and you get some SAS ports. Which basically means, all you have to done is to replace your HBA cards with a FC HBA and share all the drives you need over the "SAN" FC network...
@@btudrus That does sound pretty handy. At the time one issue I had, that started my building a separate computer, was that I didn't have any PCIE ports left to add another HBA. That and I really didn't want my main system running, esp with it's higher power consumption, for all the hours it takes to run a backup. Those are some tempting selling points. I do see myself going the FC route in the future when I eventually upgrade to a bigger drive.
@@DATT I got them plus a HP drive for 150 refurbished not sure if that is a good thing or not. Waiting for two parts mostly using stuff i had but wanted to make a tiny tape pc so had to get some stuff. The thing is will it work, ill know soon. Thanks to you i got some tiny fans to help airflow in the drive meeting at least the recommended cfm from the manual. I counted I have 50TB of hard drives, long story only 10tb worth storing. I plan to make a video on the build one day. I am glad I found your channel.
I think I would feel fine spending $150 on a good working drive, esp if it's actually refurbished. A proper refurb is sometimes better than buying a new one.
![BabyChiefDoit - Too Slow (feat. STAR BANDZ) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zayaxws7RPg/mqdefault.jpg)
So glad I found you and this little saga! It's very informative AND fun to watch
Hah, thanks !
You don't "burn" tapes, unless you want to dispose of them. You simply "write" to tapes.
Of course not, that's just what I call it.
@@DATT Then may I call you funny? ;)
@@oschiri66 ah sure, trying to have a little bit of humour in my vids.
@@DATT Unless the tape drive overheats. Ouchio.
😅
Despite seeing and enjoying your earlier tape video I somehow missed this one. Nice going with the installation and networking. ngl as an apartment dweller I’m envious of your cool “computer lab” setup with all the systems lined up behind you
I have 4 vids I made about this so far. They should be in the playlist for it.
I have another less eventful one filmed I'll be posting one day.
On the crossover cable thing, i never needed one as all half decent and modern ethernet chips have crossover capabilities built in.
Yeah I didn't know about that, I just assumed I needed one.
I still have loads of 1TB WD Blacks from 2006 in service in 2024. They're remarkably reliable.
Yeah I have quite a few WD's in general. I have lost some, but I have many still going strong, all the way back to 40gb. Tho, I don't use the 40's anymore, so who knows if they'd still hold up to everyday use, haha.
probably failed because you had no cooling. these things really need active cooling. A LOT.
Nah, it has a fan built into it. Cooling is something I considered. The drive was sketchy from day 1. I bought a lemon and didn't know cause it was my first drive and had no idea what proper operation was like. The replacement drive, that does not have a fan, has been smooth and reliable since.
@@DATT I have a LTO5 drive HP 3280, full height, in its intended external enclosure, and it has a BIG and LOUD fan at the back. These things need cooling!
I imagine that fan also manages a psu ?
Well either way, the new drive has been fine for like 2 years now. The old one was def a lemon.
@@DATT ok man, I hope you’re right. Does the tape exit cold or warm to the touch after being written/read? Mine is cold.
@@RunTheTape Warm, not alarmingly so. Not enough to worry. I forget how, but there is def airflow thru the drive. I don't want tooo much as it'll build up dust fast. I seem to have just the right amount I feel.
noooo ! in gigabit ethernet all 8 cables are used in RX and TX. crossing is useless. the nic does it !
Yeah, people keep telling me this after the fact. I guess I was working with old information.
It worked either way tho.
Question: Would you be able to do a 1 year review of how your backups and restore have worked with LTO-4?
I suppose. Not sure how to implement that. I've had it over a year so far. These tapes are rated for 30 years so 1 year isn't much a test.
I should probably write a test tape, and use that, I don't want to mess with my proper tapes as running them does wear them. Mind you, I do have some tapes I use for temp backup. Does my copies of raw camera footage rust intend to delete and over write once that project is complete. I could use I've of those. But really, I think a vid of this nature could take a couple more years to do right.
Well, thats normal. Halfheight Drives are known for being slower than their Fullheight ones. It should be only considered, if FH is not an option.
Ah I see, you've found all the vids.
Where do you get these LTO drives, for a reasonable price?
It's hard to say, I kind of just rolled the dice on ebay. My first drive was a fail, my second one has been great.
I only got one cause I have tonnes of data to archive doing this youtube thing. I otherwise typically wouldn't recommend one for the causal user.
How much did you pay for that drive?
You don't need crossover cables anymore, if your PCs support Gigabit, you are fine
Thanks for the series, nice introduction to tape drives :)
Oh I dont' remember. It wasn't much. Like less than $60. It was a "why is no one else bidding on this auction". I lucked out, kind of fate even.
@@DATT hehe great deal 👍
Oh hell yeah, got luck just when I needed it.
Another interesting episode. Did you figure out precisely which tape interface(s) versions can accept the SATA connection from the PC?
Like run a drive off the built on Sata ? No drives that I'm aware of work on normal Sata.
Or are you talking about how the connector was different on this drive ?
Seems the newer SAS connectors are all that larger type. Probably to stop people from accidentally plugging it into a normal Sata for, for whatever reason, I don't know that it's harmful, just won't work.
@@DATT I'm not clear what you meant. You did take a SAS drive and attach it via SATA to the PC, correct? Do you have any idea on which series of drives one can do that? Everything I read said that you cannot connect SAS to a SATA interface, but you've proven that clearly, that's not always true.
Oh no, I have a SAS card in there. I did try sata but it didn't work.
@@DATT Oh! So I misunderstood? You're using a SAS HBA? It looked like you were inserting a SATA cable onto the drive. BTW, Quantum makes some SATA versions of LTO drives.
@@bradkaral1188 Yup, it's running on a SAS HBA, ahhh, earlier gen SAS cards used the exact same kind of cable as SATA. So it's an easy confusion to make.
The SAS HBA's at the time could run SATA drives even.
Hey I recently received my hp lto-6 drive when I plug it in the ready indicator light turns on like it is ready but the driver keeps saying no lto drive registered. Do you have any possible fix for this because you're the expert on lto here on RUclips
Hah, not sure I would say I'm an expert on them but...
Hard to say from here. If you're sure you have the correct driver, then I'd look at your controller card, make sure you have the driver for it. There must be a communication error.
If one writes without issue and the other can read and write why not just keep both and use them both for writing data at up to twice the speed. You only need one drive to read them back
Nah, the original drive is shot. It had trouble reading, then it had trouble writing.
I do pretty much as u. I went to school for video production. And I have made videos. But i havent uploaded them to the web. But I'm the same predicament as u. I keep all my project files. And I have about 2 tb worth of stuff. So I looked at ur channel about tape drives. Which was super helpful. But I think I am gonna stick to buring my data on blue ray Discs. Blue Ray's have come down in price. Those tripple layer blue ray discs are running $60 for 10 of them. And they hold 100 gb on a disc. And it is that mdisc media too that is stable for 1000 years. I think I'm gonna opt for that method. The tape drive seems promising there seems to be too many problems. Greetings from the USA. I subscribed to ur channel. Love ur content
I looked into Blue Ray, it wasn't for me. I can general a TB a month at the scale I'm operating, and most of my projects are like 60-120 gb. Many wouldn't fit on one disk. These Tapes are 800gb and cost me less than $10 cdn. Also, stuff's more expensive in Canada.
So that's way better economy, and it'll take up less room overall.
For you tho, it does sound like it'd make sense.
Bare in mind, the problems I'm having are half, cause I'm working with cheap used equipment, and half cause I didn't know what I was doing. Was kind of figuring it out as I go along in these videos.
Thanks for the Sub !
why not just use fibre channel and the drive outside of the case?
Ah, well that's not what I have. Pretty much scraped this together with parts I could find used.
I considered fiber channel, but I didn't quite understand it that well at the time. I already had a SAS card, so that steered my direction. Funny thing, in the next vid, my SAS card fails.
In the end, this rig's been working great for me since.
@@DATT Well, the nice thing about FC is that it basically is SAS/SCSI over fibre with some neat features like the possibility to access the same device from multiple hosts (or even use multiple backup connections).
Which means, you wouldn't need any server for that purpose, just a FC HBA in every PC/workstation you would want to back up. And you would see that backup device on each of these PC's like if it would be local SAS/SATA/SCSI device.
There are even boxes which you can plug into the FC network and you get some SAS ports.
Which basically means, all you have to done is to replace your HBA cards with a FC HBA and share all the drives you need over the "SAN" FC network...
@@btudrus That does sound pretty handy. At the time one issue I had, that started my building a separate computer, was that I didn't have any PCIE ports left to add another HBA. That and I really didn't want my main system running, esp with it's higher power consumption, for all the hours it takes to run a backup. Those are some tempting selling points. I do see myself going the FC route in the future when I eventually upgrade to a bigger drive.
The unit is SCSI or SAS version?
SAS, I wouldn't bother with SCSI these days.
Highly considering getting an LTO drive down the road.
I recommend it so far, if you can find the right deals on decent parts.
@@DATT Guess I’ll keep a look out. There’s 10 fuji LTO 4 tapes for about 50$ but drive wise it varies. Gonna need to do some research.
That's pretty good I think.
@@DATT I got them plus a HP drive for 150 refurbished not sure if that is a good thing or not. Waiting for two parts mostly using stuff i had but wanted to make a tiny tape pc so had to get some stuff. The thing is will it work, ill know soon.
Thanks to you i got some tiny fans to help airflow in the drive meeting at least the recommended cfm from the manual. I counted I have 50TB of hard drives, long story only 10tb worth storing. I plan to make a video on the build one day. I am glad I found your channel.
I think I would feel fine spending $150 on a good working drive, esp if it's actually refurbished. A proper refurb is sometimes better than buying a new one.