[tombert]

If you need tons of storage, I actually do think you should check out LTO. You can buy LTO-6 tapes for about $10 if you get a bunch at a time, and each is about a 2.5TB. On a good day you can find external SAS LTO-6 drives for about $200. LTO tapes are generally rated for decades of use so they’re pretty durable.

Nowadays on Linux you can very easily mount LTO tapes like any other drive using LTFS, so you don’t have to become some hyper-expert with tar.

[RupertSalt]

I was running Minix and OpenBSD at home, but in 1999 I began using Linux, and that was because it was mature, no longer only a toy for experimenting, but mostly that it was the only PC Unix OS that supported the "ftape" Floppy-Tape interface for a QIC backup drive.

https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Ftape-HOWTO.html

[mikelitoris]

I think you forgot to mention that the readers cost $5k+ new and $1k from ebay (does it work? who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

[tombert]

I have two used external LTO-6 decks that I got used for $200 each on eBay. LTO-7 and later are absurdly expensive, but you can shop around and occasionally find LTO-6 ones for cheap. You have to be a bit vigilant on eBay and shop around for awhile but deals can be had.

I had to “repair” the first one I bought, but that literally ended up being fixed by tightening a screw on the SAS connector. The second one I bought worked out of the box.