Quantum LTO2 External Tape Drive

Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is a magnetic tape data storage technology originally developed in the late 1990s as an open standards alternative to the proprietary tape formats such as DLT that were available at the time. Since it was released, the LTO format has consistently been the ...Linear Tape-Open (LTO) is a magnetic tape data storage technology originally developed in the late 1990s as an open standards alternative to the proprietary tape formats such as DLT that were available at the time. Since it was released, the LTO format has consistently been the best-selling tape format.

The Quantum LTO-2 Half-Height Tape Drive is a second generation model in the Quantum LTO family and was manufactured by Quantum for vendors including Dell, and several others for use in libraries, autoloaders and of course as standalone internal and external drives. The Quantum LTO-2 Half-Height Tape Drive offers 400GB compressed capacity on a single tape at transfer speeds of up to 52MBps or 187GB per hour. Native, the drive provides 200GB of storage capacity with a transfer speed of 26MBps or 94GB per hour.

The typical compressed backup speed for this drive might be about 144GB per hour. The drive uses variable transfer speeds and matches the tape drive speed to that of the host and optimizes data transfers, resulting in shorter backup times and increased reliability. The Quantum LTO-2 Half-Height Tape Drive employs the same technology as previous Quantum LTO products, and uses LTO2 media in order to achieve higher capacities.

However, it maintains backward compatibility and can still read and write data to LTO1 and LTO2 data cartridges. The Quantum LTO-2 Half-Height Tape Drive was only available in 68pin Ultra 160 SCSI LVD, interface versions.