LTO Tape Hardware and Operations
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      3. LTO Tape Hardware and Operations

      Where do I buy LTO tapes and what will work?

      Best practices for buying LTO tapes for backup.

      LTO Tapes can be purchased from online retailers. A quick internet search for the LTO tape generation (LTO-5, LTO-6, etc) should provide many options for getting tapes.

      It has been recommended to us by a tape drive manufacturer that tapes should be barium ferrite (BaFe) based when possible, and not metal particle. The barium ferrite based tapes apparently are more reliable and longer lasting. 

      Barium ferrite tapes may not be available for generations before LTO-7, and metal particle may be the only option.

      Fujifilm states that they will only use barium ferrite for tapes from LTO-7 forward. Some prior generations seem also to be available in BaFe as well.

      HP offers some tapes in barium ferrite, and it appears it is available at LTO-7 and later.

      Other brands such as Maxell, IBM and Quantum also seem to carry BaFe tapes, though we recommend verifying the media type with either the packaging or the seller.