• FuzzyRedPanda@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      When the tape drive fails and eats your tape in the process, you better hope you have a second backup or you’ll be crying salty salty tears.

      I worked in the service center for a tape-drive manufacturer and I would routinely see the drives we got back for repair. They were often taken apart by the customer in a frantic and desperate attempt to get their cassette out. The cassette was almost always still in there though, with multiple feet of tape snagged and wound around everything.

      • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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        3 days ago

        Tapes themselves are cheaper, but the drive (and potentially operating cost?) can definitely be higher for the industrial stuff

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          Presumably when we’re talking off-site backups we’re talking about a separate company sitting somewhere in an abandoned nuclear bunker which can justify the price of a tape drive or twenty.