LTO tape brand preferences?

[Chuck_Stevens]

What brand of LTO3 tapes do you folks prefer?

(We usually get tapes directly from StorageTek (Sun), which are STK-branded, but they aren't responding to my emails for a quote, so I might have to place an order through other channels.)

Thanks!

[J_H_Is_gone]

Quantum,..... but if I remeber right only two compaines make tapes, they just put other peoples names on them.

[Stumpr2]

They are all about the same. But the "lifetime" warrantee may differ. I haven't returned any LTO3 tapes yet but I did return a slew of SDLT and DLT a few years back and got no hassles from one manufacturer and had to promise my firstborn to another.

He just started colege and I would be tempted to trade him in now

jk, jk!

[sdo]

For LTO1, not sure if this is true for LTO3 or LTO2...

I would go with the brand recommended by the tape drive manufacturer.  The tricky part sometimes is determining the manufacturer of the tape drive.

I have had engineers tell me to only use the recommended brands as the tape drives can spend several minutes calibrating themselves against tapes that the tape drive finds "difficult".

Also, if it ever does come down to a critical problem, you don't want the tape drive supplier to turn around and say "You're on your own buddy, you used unsupported media".

[Chuck_Stevens]

Thanks for the feedback!

[CY]

Based on my experience with LTO-1 and LTO-2, I would buy/use Imation or Fuji tapes.  They worked well with IBM's Ultrium (LTO) drives which are installed on ADIC (now Quantum) Scalar series tape libraries.

Both manufacturer's tape qualities are good and I rarely have bad tapes.