Tim Gerhard
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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MagStor Thunderbolt 3 LTO drives now work on M1 MACs.
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The H680 is a great card to use with LTO drives, but it went end of life last month since manufacturing is heading towards PCI-E 4. The H1280 12G version is going to be the new champ with a $100 higher price tag.
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We have our MagStor Thunderbolt 3 LTO drivers ready. We’re just waiting for approval to release them to the public.
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I’m responsible for the MagStor LTO brand and get to play with most of the software out there.
For MAC desktop drives using LTFS you have YoYotta, Imagine Products (myLTO + PreRollPost) as the only real options in my opinion. Then there is Hedge, which was mentioned before…
YoYotta ($490) you get the full package with verification and a catalog of your tape history. The unique kicker with YoYotta that I enjoy the most is that it detects your drive brand and generation automatically and adjusts accordingly. You can even mix/match drives. Support is based out of the UK, but is responsive and I rarely get complaints.
myLTO ($299) The best value pick for light users. It runs your LTFS and runs verification. No catalog, but it can export a report afterwards that you could consider a poor mans database. Support is out of USA.
PreRollPost ($499) This is from the same company as myLTO and has a database with other features. To my knowledge it’s going away in favor to be rolled into the myLTO package as an add-on since it’s older code.
Hedge ($299) As someone else said, their site is really lacking information. When I installed a demo to play with it seemed very basic and not much a step up from the free LTFS software that you’re prompted to download for it to talk to.
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For Windows desktop drives LTFS
XenData Workstation 6 ($495) pretty much the only paid desktop option out there that I know of for Windows. Keeps a database of your tapes and runs verification.
IBM LTFS / HP LTFS / Quantum LTFS etc. are all the same IBM Spectrum Archive software. On Windows verification is less of an issue in my opinion running NTFS, but there’s still always a chance. I say use free LTFS only for some light read-jobs. You’re spending a few thousand+ on hardware, what is $500?
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Misc.
Archiware has a desktop edition now that is about $1680, and covers both backup/archive. They do have an LTFS import/export tool, but the real point of the software uses TAR. Backup is more setup a schedule and backup your data, and archive is well set it there and leave it alone forever. Their library edition is when you start getting in that 4-5k+ range, which isn’t so bad if you’re running a big library. Granted Archiware is not an LTFS system, it’s a healthy company that offers a robust feature set.
Retrospect is one of those oldies that is still around. They do ok for backup on MAC. If you have an LTO7 or above steer clear on their Windows edition. They overwrite the manufacturers LTO driver and use their own SLOW driver built for LTO4 drives, and if you don’t keep a steady stream of 100MB/s + on an LTO7 or LTO8, you’re destroying the drive.
Xen Data and StorageDNA are LTFS appliances for bigger libraries and both have their places in larger setups. Consider these in the 25k+ range to start. Xen Data is US based and I believe StorageDNA is based out of India.
Spectra Logic and Quantum are for people that want to spend 10x more than a XenData or StorageDNA system. According to Xen Data, the Spectra Logic Blackpearl does a proprietary LTFS that you won’t be able to use with anything else….. defeating the purpose of LTFS.
BRU – Dead or Not? We’ll see, but the last few years I thought this forum was just the BRU tech support page. From what I gather, OWC does docks and little gadgets, not sure how they will fare with tech support on software. OWC has resources so let’s hope they make things better and we won’t see all the tech support on these forums.
Anyway back to my cave to sell these above mentioned software packs and hardware.
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Mike,
Cache uses standard TAR, so you can use any LTO3 or LTO4 drive to restore those. Let me know if you’d like me to get you a quote for a drive to use, or we can offer Cache restores as a service if you send them in to us.
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If you’re on MAC, I always recommend downloading as a zip file to preserve file integrity.
Tim Gerhard
MagStor Inc.
LTO Solutions TB3 / SAS / USB / FC
614-505-6333
tgerhard@magstor.com -
Nothing comes to mind.
Our MagStor tape drives will charge your laptop and offer a 2nd USB-C port, but I don’t think you want to buy a tape drive just to do this heh.
Tim Gerhard
MagStor Inc.
LTO Solutions TB3 / SAS / USB / FC
614-505-6333
tgerhard@magstor.com -
LTFS you only have a few options on Windows.
IBM Spectrum Archive Single Drive Edition – Free
Xen Data Workstation 6 – $499
PreRollPost – $499
The free software gives you 0 support and no verification or database capabilities.
Tim Gerhard
MagStor Inc.
LTO Solutions TB3 / SAS / USB / FC
614-505-6333
tgerhard@magstor.com -
Have you guys considered making the move to LTFS?
With LTFS you just won’t run into issues since it’s non-proprietary and cross platform.
Tim Gerhard
MagStor Inc.
LTO Solutions TB3 / SAS / USB / FC
614-505-6333
tgerhard@magstor.com -
We decided to pull our MagStor LTO systems exhibit this year due to the virus.
Tim Gerhard
MagStor Inc.
LTO Solutions TB3 / SAS / USB / FC
614-505-6333
tgerhard@magstor.com