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jmattcross's avatar
jmattcross
Level 2
15 years ago

LTO3 or LTO4

 Hi everyone,
We are currently running an LTO3 media drive with uncompressed tape capacity of 400 gigs.  I would like to move to the higher capacity LTO4 tapes with 800 gigs uncompressed capacity.  My question is, will the LTO3 media drive that I have now utilize the larger capacity tapes, are they compatible?  Can I write more data to the LTO4 tapes and still be able to read on an LTO3 drive?  Thanks.
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  • jmattcross's avatar
    jmattcross
    Level 2
    15 years ago
     Thanks guys for the posts!  Not the answer that I was hoping for but you did answer my questions.  Thanks again for the help.
  • Mouse's avatar
    Mouse
    Moderator
    15 years ago

    You can't use LTO3 drive to read LTO4 tapes.
    You can use LTO4 drive to read and write LTO3 media as well as LTO4 media.

    Of course LTO3 medias written by LTO4 drive can be read using LTO3 drive

    Here is a table from IBM Redbook "IBM System Storage Tape Library Guide for Open Systems"

    IBM Ultrium Tape Drive
    IBM TotalStorage LTO Ultrium Data Cartridge
     
    800 GB
    (Ultrium 4)
    400 GB
    (Ultrium 3)
    200 GB
    (Ultrium 2)
    100 GB
    (Ultrium 1)
    Ultrium 4
    Read/Write
    Read/Write
    Read only
    N/A
    Ultrium 3
    N/A
    Read/Write
    Read/Write
    Read only
    Ultrium 2
    N/A
    N/A
    Read/Write
    Read/Write
    Ultrium 1
    N/A
    N/A
    N/A
    Read/Write

  • Luc_H's avatar
    Luc_H
    Level 3
    15 years ago
    Hi JM,

    From past experiences I would have to say that the LTO3 tapes could be read in the LTO4, but not the reverse.

    It's not just the density of the media, but the format used by the drive itself that gives the capacity.

    So the short answer would be, no, the LTO3 would not be able use the higher capacity media. The LTO4 drive, on the other hand, could be used to perform restores from the LTO3 media.

    I hope this helps,
    Luc.