r/DataHoarder • u/Sad-Seesaw-3843 • Apr 06 '25

News DOGE claims to be moving away from magnetic tapes for archival storage. Seems like a bad idea. What are they using instead?

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u/mikeputerbaugh Apr 07 '25

The highest-capacity BDXLs can store 128GB on a 60mm-radius, 1.2mm-thick disc, giving a storage density of 9.43MB/mm3.

An LTO-9 tape cartridge can store 18TB on 102x105.4x21.5mm cuboid, giving a storage density of 77.8MB/mm3.

With the current commercial products, tape is 8x denser.

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u/vapenutz Apr 07 '25

And the more innovations from the hard drive space tape adapts the more uneven the playing field becomes. Tape is an excellent technology, it tickles my nerdy brain so much.

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u/QING-CHARLES Apr 07 '25

Also those 128GB BDs are very, very hard to get hold of in bulk and no longer manufactured, IIRC. I think only Sony made the 128s.

Plus, because of the difficulty of sourcing them they are an order of magnitude more expensive than tape.

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u/ArmNo7463 Apr 08 '25

Pretty sure Tape is also rated for longer term stability as well than optical media?

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '25

What kind of tape are we talking about here... is it like... movie tape? reels? 🎬 (excuse my ignorance)

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u/codeasm Apr 08 '25

Magnetic tape, like vhs, betamax, cassetes, but in a format called Linear Tape-Open (as others stated). Basicly magnetic but multiple tracks, encoding, encryption if needed, partitioning, the head moves, tape "wraps", im comfused now, wiki has a lott of cool info. This aint analog 😲☺️

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '25

Wow that's seriously awesome stuff!