What is a tape drive?

According to the different loading mode, generally divided into manual tape drive and automatic tape drive, that is, automatically load the tape drive. At present, many manufacturers of tape drive, it manufacturers hp (HP), IBM, Exabyte (exabytes) and so on have tape drive products, in addition, professional storage vendors such as StorageTek, ADIC, Spectra logic and other companies are to tape drives, tape libraries and other products as the main push.

The automatic loading of the tape drive is actually an organic combination of tape and tape drives. A tape drive that is automatically loaded is a single computer-mounted tape drives and an automatic tape replacement device that picks up tapes from a cartridge with multiple tapes and puts them in the drive or performs the reverse process. It can back up 100GB-200GB or more data. Automatic loading of tape drives enables routine backup processes to automatically load new tapes for daily backup work. A small company with a workgroup server can automate the backup process by using a tape drive that is automatically loaded.

How Tape Storage works

Tape is a tape storage system is one of the most common storage media with the lowest cost, capacity, and Standardization of unit storage information in all storage media. Its interchangeability is good, easy to save, in recent years, because of the use of high error-correcting ability of the coding technology and write-read channel technology, greatly improve the reliability of tape storage and read and write speed. According to the working principle of read-write tape, it can be divided into spiral scanning technology, linear record (data flow) technology, DLT Technology and more advanced LTO technology.

1, spiral Scan Read and write technology:

The tape-read and write technology that is used to read and write the data on the tape in spiral scan is similar to that of the VCR, the tape winding most of the drum, and the horizontal low-speed forward, while the magnetic drum in the tape reading and writing process in reverse high-speed rotation, installed on the drum surface of the magnetic head in Its head is in the process of reading and writing with the tape to maintain a 15-degree dip, track on the tape in a 75-degree dip parallel arrangement. By using this technique, we can obtain more data channels on the same tape area, make full use of the effective storage space of the tape, and thus have high data access density.

2. Linear recording and writing technology:

The tape read-write technology that reads and writes the data on the tape in a linear way is basically the same as that of the recorder, and the high-speed motion tape parallel to the head sweeps over the stationary head for data recording or readout. This technology can make the drive system design simple, read and write speed is low, but because the data on tape track and tape on both sides parallel, data storage utilization is low. In order to effectively improve the utilization of tape and read and write speed, people have developed a multi-head parallel reading and writing methods, improve the tape recording density and transmission rate, but the design of the drive has become extremely complex, the cost is also increased.

3. Digital Linear tape Technology technology:

DLT is an advanced storage technology standard, including 1/2-inch tape, linear recording mode, patent tape import devices and special tape cartridges and other key technologies. A tape drive with DLT technology with 128 tracks on tape with a length of 1828 feet and a bandwidth of 1/2 inches, so that single tape uncompressed capacity can be up to 20GB, and the capacity can be increased by one fold after compression.

4. The technology of Linear open tape technique:

This is a high-tech tape processing technology, supported by IBM, HP, and Seagate three storage device manufacturers, which can greatly improve the volume of tape backup data. LTO tapes increase the capacity of the tape to 100GB, if compressed to 200GB. LTO technology can not only increase the channel density of tape, but also in the head and servo structure of the overall improvement, LTO technology using advanced track servo tracking system to effectively monitor and control the precise positioning of the head, to prevent the error of adjacent tracks to write problems, to improve the density of the track.

Types of Tapes

The tape can be divided into six specifications according to the working principle of the read and write tape. Two of these are the workgroup-oriented dat (4mm) tape drives and the departmental 8mm tape drives, while the other four are devices designed with a data flow storage technology that uses a single head read/write mode, a tape width of 1/4 inches, Low-end applications for Travan and DC series, as well as the use of multiple-head reading and writing, tape width is 1/2 inches, high-end application-oriented DLT and IBM's 3480/3490/3590 series.

1/4-inch tape with reel:

QIC (Quarter Inch CARTRIDGE:1/4 in-band) tape is a 1/4-inch bandwidth, cassette tape with box, also known as 1/4-inch tape. It has two kinds of specifications, namely DC6000 and DC2000. One of the DC6000 tape drives is 5.25 inches and has been eliminated. While the DC2000 tape drive is only 3.5 inches, low drive prices, high standardization, manufacturers more compatible, a box of DC2000 tape storage capacity generally 400MB, is currently one of the most widely used tapes.

Digital Audio Tapes:

DAT (Digital Audio Tape: Digital audio tape) tape with a tape width of 0.15 inches (4mm), also known as 4mm tape. Because the tape storage system uses helical scanning technology, the tape has a high storage capacity. DAT tape systems generally use the read-write and compression technology, which improves the reliability and data transmission rate of the system, and improves the storage capacity. At present, a box of DAT tapes has a storage capacity of up to 12GB, while DAT tape and drive manufacturers are more promising data backup products.

8mm tape:

is a large-capacity tape that is developed only by Exabyte company and is suitable for medium and large networks and multi-user systems. The 8mm tape and its drives also use spiral scanning technology, and the tape is wide, so the storage capacity is very high, the maximum capacity of a box of tape can reach 14GB. But the brand is unitary, the kind is few.

1/2-inch Tape:

This type of tape is divided into DLT (digital linear tape) tape and ibm3480/3490/3590 series tapes. Because of the rapid development of DLT tape technology, it has become an important standard for network backup tape drive and tape library systems, and it has the highest capacity, high speed and unique development potential to dominate the medium and high backup systems. The DLT tape has a capacity of up to 35GB per box and low unit capacity cost; The ibm3480/3490/3590 series tapes are produced by IBM, with a storage capacity of up to 10GB per cartridge, and the corresponding drive system is actually a tape library that can store multiple cartridges, The manipulator can automatically select any one of the cassette tapes to the drive.