On Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 5:36 PM home user via users <users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 8/21/2025 9:27 PM, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
>
> On Thu, Aug 21, 2025 at 6:15 PM home user via users
> <users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Good morning,
>
> (background)
> * Something went wrong with a back-up to a USB-3.0 stick this past
> May.
> Most everything was recovered, but not everything. I was told
> that the
> stick itself was probably not what failed. There are a few other
> more
> likely causes of the failure, but I cannot diagnose it. One major
> possibility is that the desktop on which I was trying to read it
> damaged
> some of the contents of the stick.
> * Many of you might recall 3.5 inch (about 8.8 cm), 1.44 MB
> floppys from
> back in the late 1980s. The disc cases had "a rectangular hole in
> one
> corner which, if obstructed, write-enables the disk. A sliding
> detented
> piece can be moved to block or reveal the part of the rectangular
> hole
> that is sensed by the drive." (from wikipedia).
> * For me, back-ups are written regularly, but searched or read
> rarely.
> (So write speed is more important than read speed.)
>
> I am looking for a way of doing back-ups such the media can be
> hardware
> write-protected when wanting to find or recover something from
> back-up.
> My back-ups are typically tens of gigabytes each, and I like to
> keep at
> least 3.
>
> (requirements)
> * local (not cloud or other internet).
> * at least 128 GB, more is better.
> * write speed as good as or better than USB-3.2.
>
> (very strongly preferred)
> * write lockable and unlockable, just like them old 3.5 inch, 1.44 MB
> floppys. Note that I want hardware locking and unlocking (like those
> floppies), not software locking/unlocking (such as with command line
> options).
>
> (preferred)
> * re-writable as opposed to write once only.
>
> Blu-ray: is write-once-only, and is much too slow (4.5 MB/sec).
> SDXC: some is lockable, but is too slow (100 MB/sec).
> By comparison, I read that USB-3.2 realistically does 500-2000 MB/sec.
>
> What do you recommend?
>
>
> LTO, like LTO-10. LTO tapes usually have a write-protect switch.
>
> Older LTO works fine, too. I still have LTO-6 at my house for
> archiving my important stuff. I move the LTO tape into the shed in my
> backyard in case the house burns down.
Thank-you, Jeffrey. I did not know about LTO.
The price of the media is tolerable. The write-protect capability is nice.
But the hardware is expensive ($thousands) for a stand-alone home desktop.
Looks good for professional and commercial shops.
A new old stock LTO-3 drive can be had for $150, <https://www.ebay.com/itm/406139240560>.
The
tapes are about $25 (or less). The tapes don't wear out like thumb
drives and SDcards. You don't develop bad blocks, and you don't need
wear leveling.
Also, the speed for LTO-9 (400MB/sec) is less than USB-3.2.
Jeff
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