LTO10 as an open format technology. Linear tape open or LTO tape drives and media from different manufacturers have always been interoperable. So the formatting and operation guidelines are primarily managed through the LTO Ultrium's format specifications. Here's some key operational and formatting guidelines for LTO10. There's going to be no pre-formatting needed unlike its predecessor LTO9 10 eliminates the need for a time consuming pre-formatting or initialization process for new tapes. This is going to be a major change that significantly improves operational efficiency for tape libraries and for restores. And for those in the video biz who woke up this morning with back pain because you sneezed last night, it means you don't have to block your tapes in advance. Good stuff. the tilted head design kind of like a German Shepherd. Uh the reason the initialization process was ditched was made possible by this whole new tilted head design. It allows for intelligent dynamic head alignment to correctly put all that data on the tape. So how is data written on an LTO10 tape? Something called linear serpentine recording. There's a fun thing you probably have never heard before. It really means things like guard bands, data bands. And using that format in LTO10, the read write head is going to write multiple data tracks in a single pass before reversing direction and writing another set of tracks in the opposite direction. So there's going to be increased track density. LTO10 writes data on 15,14 tracks. You carry the seven divide by how urgent the need is for the media. Basically, it adds up to a giant
increase over LTO9's 8,960 tracks gets you that much higher capacity. Hardware compression. LTO10 drives support lossless hardware compression. It's pretty cool. It's enabled by default for compressible data. That can bump up a tape's capacity from 30 terabyte native to as much as 75 terabytes compressed. For incompressible data, it passes through without being compressed. So, here's the fun thing. Did you know that video streams are already compressed? And what happens when you compress compressed things? They get bigger. So, for that industry, I think we're going to skip that stuff. LTFS support. The linear tape file system or LTFS is a standard format supported by LTO10 drives. It's been around since LTO5. LTFS makes tapebased data as easy to access as data that's on a disc drive. It allows it to be mounted as a file system with drag and drop functionality. And having lived in the world of retrieving archives for so many years from tape, please use LTFS. Or I'm going to start with the stories about tar LTO3 and nobody wants that mess anywhere. Operational deeds. No backward compatibility. LTO10 drives cannot read or write LTO9 media. Yep, you heard that right. Huge break from previous LTO generations that have supported some form of backward compatibility, sometimes as as much as two whole generations back. Change was necessary for the architectural improvements needed to achieve LTO10's capacity gains. So when it's time to bump up to LTO10, there's going to be some new and different things to think about as repacking a whole new library from old libraries might end up being a timesaver. And you know, we know that
time is money. So cartridge handling standard best practices for handling tape media should be followed, such as storing cartridges in a cool, dry place and in their protective cases. Proper handling prevents damage and preserves data integrity. LTO tapes are one of the longest lasting modern storage media methods out there. But like my parents told me, if you don't take care of your things and you leave them out, they're going to get ruined. So follow the guidelines for media storage and you can get 30 years of storage on LTO. If you want to know more about LTO10 and how you can move your organization up, please contact us here at Qualstar.