[meepmorp]

Aren't LTO formats only backward compatible with the immediate prior version?

[UltraSane]

They can write to one version back and read two version back. for really long term data storage you have to also store the read/write hardware.

[Dylan16807]

By the time it's hard to get a compatible LTO drive, I'd be very suspicious of a mothballed drive working either. If you want reliable long term storage you're going to have to update it every couple decades.