Manage

How many times can you write to a 3490e tape cartridge?

Randy Kerns, Evaluator Group

Published: 19 Oct 2005

What is the life of a 3490e tape cartridge? Specifically, how many times can you write to it?

The wear characteristics are primarily induced by passes of the tape across the heads. This causes tape stretching and particulate abrasion (rubbing off the material). Tape vendors rate a tape on its durability, which is the number of forward passes across the tape. For a 3490E, Imation rates the long length tape as 2,000 read forward passes and short tape length for 120,000 read forward passes. The actual cartridge shell is rated for 5,000 loads/unloads.

Dig Deeper on Tape backup and tape libraries

Tandberg Data set to release 1.5 terabyte RDX cartridge Tandberg Data announced this week its 1.5 terabyte RDX cartridges would be available in September through Tandberg Data's channel partners.

Tape backup overview Tape is the quintessential backup technology, providing cost-effective, long-term data storage for all business types and sizes. Although performance is relatively slow, tape fits well into the storage architecture allowing users to store a large volume of data at a reasonable price. Today, the falling cost of hard disk storage is causing many companies to opt for disk-based backup products offering much faster backup and recovery times. But tape remains a viable platform for many archival and disaster recovery applications.

How to destroy data on backup tapes This tip offers guidelines for destroying data on backup tapes, with information about degaussing, tape cartridge destruction, tape reuse and record keeping.

LTO-4 licenses up for grabs with encryption support LTO-4 licenses are now available, providing the first midrange tape drive to support native encryption along with 1.6 TB of compressed capacity and transfer rates of 240 MBps.

LTO-4 licences up for grabs with encryption support LTO-4 licences are now available, providing the first midrange tape drive to support native encryption along with 1.6 TB of compressed capacity and transfer rates of 240 MBps.

Sprint spin-off struggles with mainframe tape migration Telecom firm Embarq touched a nerve with mainframe users at StorageTek Forum -- huge tape migrations are forcing them to reconsider their historic loyalty to tape.

Related Q&A from Randy Kerns

SAN vs. NAS: What are the key differences?

Compare SAN and NAS, and find out what to consider when using each storage system format. Object storage and the cloud are also affecting the storage... Continue Reading

What is a LUN and why do we need one?

Logical unit numbers are a logical abstraction between a physical disk device and applications. Learn more about LUN use cases and LUN security ... Continue Reading

What should you consider before deploying an all-flash storage array?

What is the one hidden gotcha that you'd advise users about if they were shopping for an all-flash storage array? Continue Reading

Have a question for an expert?

Please add a title for your question

Get answers from a TechTarget expert on whatever's puzzling you.

Meet all of our Data Backup experts

View all Data Backup questions and answers

SearchDisasterRecovery

Zerto plays big role in McKesson's disaster recovery plan

McKesson Corporation's disaster recovery plan is deeply detailed and relies on Zerto's technology across its many globally ...

Why you should have a disaster recovery testing plan in place

Regular testing of a disaster recovery plan is one of the only ways to ensure a plan is working, up to date and well-tailored to ...

Post-disaster recovery, don't overlook user connectivity

After you've successfully recovered your environment, the job isn't quite over. Ensuring user connectivity following a recovery ...

SearchStorage

Samsung V-NAND SSDs designed for high capacity, speed, efficiency

Samsung's V-NAND chip breaks through existing 3D NAND cell stacking limits with the industry's first 100+ layers in a move ...

Portworx ships backup, capacity management for containers

Portworx's storage product tacks on PX-Backup and PX-Autopilot for Capacity Management modules for enterprises building stateful ...

Computational storage for IoT and other potential use cases

IoT is the main application for computational storage. Another potential use case is inside scale-out server architecture, but ...

SearchConvergedInfrastructure

HCI storage adoption rises as array sales slip

Dell goes against the grain by increasing storage sales, but much of its gains came from hyper-converged and data protection ...

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct simplifies converged, HCI storage

Storage Spaces Direct in Windows Server packages several different Microsoft technologies to lower TCO and simplify storage in ...

Explore compelling benefits of hyper-converged infrastructure

Better support remote office/branch office environments and address budgetary, efficiency, scaling and operational challenges ...

SearchITChannel

4 SD-WAN vendors integrate with AWS Transit Gateway

Aruba, Cisco, Citrix and Silver Peak are among the first SD-WAN vendors to integrate their products with the AWS Transit Gateway.

Intel partner marketplace to drive ecosystem collaboration

Intel aims to make partner-to-partner collaboration easier with the launch of its Solutions Marketplace; other IT channel news ...

Desktop-as-a-service combo targets channel via Ingram Micro

Citrix, IGEL and Ingram Micro are collaborating on a desktop-as-a-service offering, which could provide channel partners with a ...

How many times can you write to a 3490e tape cartridge?

Dig Deeper on Tape backup and tape libraries

Related Q&A from Randy Kerns

SAN vs. NAS: What are the key differences?

What is a LUN and why do we need one?

What should you consider before deploying an all-flash storage array?

Have a question for an expert?

Start the conversation

0 comments

Please create a username to comment.

-ADS BY GOOGLE

SearchDisasterRecovery

Zerto plays big role in McKesson's disaster recovery plan

Why you should have a disaster recovery testing plan in place

Post-disaster recovery, don't overlook user connectivity

SearchStorage

Samsung V-NAND SSDs designed for high capacity, speed, efficiency

Portworx ships backup, capacity management for containers

Computational storage for IoT and other potential use cases

SearchConvergedInfrastructure

HCI storage adoption rises as array sales slip

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct simplifies converged, HCI storage

Explore compelling benefits of hyper-converged infrastructure

SearchITChannel

4 SD-WAN vendors integrate with AWS Transit Gateway

Intel partner marketplace to drive ecosystem collaboration

Desktop-as-a-service combo targets channel via Ingram Micro

Dig Deeper on Tape backup and tape libraries

Related Q&A from Randy Kerns

Have a question for an expert?

Start the conversation

0 comments

Register

Login

Forgot your password?

Your password has been sent to:

Please create a username to comment.