HP Tape Drives

HP StorageWorks tape drives remain in service for archive and offline backup precisely because tape is removable and, once ejected, unreachable from the network. Our stock spans four decades of formats, and the format is the first thing to pin down.

LTO Ultrium

The dominant format, sold by HP under Ultrium model names such as 215, 230, 448, 460, 920 and 1840. We hold drives from LTO-1 through LTO-7.

LTO compatibility follows a published rule that is worth committing to memory: a drive reads two generations back and writes one generation back. An LTO-5 drive reads LTO-3 and LTO-4 media and writes LTO-4 and LTO-5. It cannot read LTO-2 at all. This single rule decides whether a given drive can recover your existing archive.

DAT and DDS

Smaller-capacity formats for lower-volume backup, sold as DDS-2 through DDS-5 and under names such as DAT24 and DAT72. Still in service where archives were written in that format and must remain readable.

DLT

An older high-capacity format predating LTO, retained almost entirely for reading legacy archives.

Interfaces and packaging

• SCSI - LVD and single-ended variants on the older drives, in 68-pin and other connector types
• SAS - the usual interface on later LTO generations
• Fibre Channel - typically the library-attached drives
• Internal, external and library drive modules - a library module is built to slot into a specific autoloader or library chassis and is not a drop-in internal drive

Capacities are quoted native and compressed, for example 800/1600GB on LTO-4. The compressed figure assumes 2:1, which real data rarely achieves - size your media on the native number.

Tell us the format you need to read and the interface you have and we will confirm the right drive and, where it applies, the correct library module.