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LTO3 or LTO4

jmattcross
Level 2
 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.
4 REPLIES 4

Luc_H
Level 3
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.

Mouse
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

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

Andy_Welburn
Level 6
drives can read 2 generations back & write one generation back.

jmattcross
Level 2
 Thanks guys for the posts!  Not the answer that I was hoping for but you did answer my questions.  Thanks again for the help.