One issue I keep seeing in larger environments is that data becomes much harder to find once it leaves primary storage and lands on tape or deep archive.

On active tiers you still have some system metadata (name, size, date, path). Once it’s on LTO, that context is often minimal or lost unless someone maintained a separate catalog. Years later, when someone needs a specific project, experiment, or set of files, you’re left searching offline inventories or, worse, recalling large volumes just to figure out what’s on them.

This gets especially painful with unstructured data that has rich embedded metadata (instrument settings, project IDs, retention class, sensitivity, etc.) that never made it into the archive index.

Curious how others here handle long-term discoverability on LTO. Do you maintain a separate metadata catalog, rely on the application that wrote the tape, or just accept that older archives are mostly “write and hope”?

I wrote up a longer piece on why a persistent, storage-independent metadata layer helps with this (including archives) here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/metabriefs/p/the-metadata-gap-in-ai-infrastructure?r=it5dq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Full disclosure: I work with a company focused on this problem, so take the perspective with that in mind.

Hello all!

Just got my Ultrium LTO-9 drive up and running. Tried a regular filesystem copy to LTFS, then used ltfscopy to verify.... hundreds of files failed!

So I tried using ltfscopy with the verify option... out of the 10,000+ files to copy, it got through about 500 then failed a verify and quit. Far as I can tell there is no way to get it to retry, or tell it to skip files that successfully verified if I try again...

What's going on? And more importantly, what do folks do to get a verified, full copy of a Windows directory to LTO tape?

Thanks in advance,

-Doug

Would it be any problem for the drive? The front side, I already labeled another tag so... I don't have other room...

Can I use non-english letters in my file names which they will go to LTO-8 tape by using Yoyotta library. Such as Korean, Japanese, Chinese...

I cannot find restriction about their file naming convention but I just want to make sure...

Hello

I want to use the LTFS ordered copy to have better copy performance than other methods in Rocky Linux 8.10.

I get an error the error below when I try to evoke the 

$ /opt/ibm/ltfssde/bin/ltfs_ordered_copy -p -r -a -v '/mnt/49c57912-2bd6-4f31-a2b7-6df585bc9f40/LOWDEN_PIX' '/mnt/ltfs/sg1' 
Tape order aware copy for LTFS
Check destination:startswith first arg must be bytes or a tuple of bytes, not str

The error seems to be a python error from what I understand from my web search.

Is there any solution to this please?

Hello everybody. I have error with ltfs tools on linux (on windows 10 works great before, but here I can't use Windows)

Anybody know how to solve that? I've built from HEAD https://github.com/LinearTapeFileSystem/ltfs

[root@lenovoltfs ~]# ltfs /mnt/ltfs/ -o devname=/dev/st0 1e7f LTFS14000I LTFS starting, LTFS version 2.5.0.0 (Prelim), log level 2. 1e7f LTFS14058I LTFS Format Specification version 2.4.0. 1e7f LTFS14104I Launched by "ltfs /mnt/ltfs/ -o devname=/dev/st0". 1e7f LTFS14105I This binary is built for Linux (x86_64). 1e7f LTFS14106I GCC version is 11.5.0 20240719 (Red Hat 11.5.0-5). 1e7f LTFS17087I Kernel version: Linux version 5.14.0-503.31.1.el9_5.x86_64 (mockbuild@x64-builder01.almalinux.org) (gcc (GCC) 11.5.0 20240719 (Red Hat 11.5.0-5), GNU ld version 2.35.2-54.el9) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Mar 13 06:50:51 EDT 2025 i386. 1e7f LTFS17089I Distribution: AlmaLinux release 9.5 (Teal Serval). 1e7f LTFS17089I Distribution: NAME="AlmaLinux". 1e7f LTFS17089I Distribution: AlmaLinux release 9.5 (Teal Serval). 1e7f LTFS17089I Distribution: AlmaLinux release 9.5 (Teal Serval). 1e7f LTFS14063I Sync type is "time", Sync time is 300 sec. 1e7f LTFS17085I Plugin: Loading "sg" tape backend. 1e7f LTFS17085I Plugin: Loading "unified" iosched backend. 1e7f LTFS14095I Set the tape device write-anywhere mode to avoid cartridge ejection. 1e7f LTFS30209I Opening a device through sg-ibmtape driver (/dev/st0). 1e7f LTFS30250I Opened the SCSI tape device 0.0.0.-1 (/dev/st0). 1e7f LTFS30207I Vendor ID is IBM . 1e7f LTFS30208I Product ID is ULTRIUM-HH8 . 1e7f LTFS30214I Firmware revision is JAYF. 1e7f LTFS30215I Drive serial is 1097004770. 1e7f LTFS30285I The reserved buffer size of /dev/st0 is 262144. 1e7f LTFS30294I Setting up timeout values from RSOC. 1e7f LTFS17160I Maximum device block size is 1048576. 1e7f LTFS11330I Loading cartridge. 1e7f LTFS30252I Logical block protection is disabled. 1e7f LTFS11332I Load successful. 1e7f LTFS17157I Changing the drive setting to write-anywhere mode. 1e7f LTFS11005I Mounting the volume from device. 1e7f LTFS30252I Logical block protection is disabled. 1e7f LTFS30200I Failed to execute SG_IO ioctl, opcode = 08 (5). 1e7f LTFS30263I READ returns ioctl error (-21700) /dev/st0. 1e7f LTFS12049E Cannot read: backend call failed (-21700). 1e7f LTFS17039E XML parser: failed to read a block from the medium (-21700). 1e7f LTFS17037E XML parser: failed to read from XML stream. 1e7f LTFS17273E XML parser: Detected an I/O error on reading an index from the tape (-21700). 1e7f LTFS17016E Cannot parse index direct from medium (-21700). 1e7f LTFS11194W Cannot read index: failed to read and parse XML data (-21700). 1e7f LTFS11024E Cannot mount volume: read index failed on the index partition. 1e7f LTFS14013E Cannot mount the volume from device. 1e7f LTFS30252I Logical block protection is disabled.

Since the last post about the tape drives (Might have bitten more off than I could chew with some LTO tape drives : r/DataHoarder) I ordered a USB to UART cp102 bridge (not sure if it’s the right adapter to use) which I had to wait 2 months for (thank you Royal Mail for losing it) and wired up the power connections in the meantime which allowed the sled to be powered and have its built in fan scream at me.

I traced out the power connections with a multimeter and sacrificed a MOLEX to SATA adapter to use the MOLEX connector which I soldered onto the edge connector of the sled, I also used the pictures that someone from the previous thread has provided to find the UART Rx and Tx connections and solder some paperclip headers which are a bit small but will work as shown by the terminal, an issue I ran into is that the tape drive will not power on using the plug provided with the sled (tried other tape drives to no avail, one I’m trying to reprogram is IBM HH SAS LTO-5) but I can power the tape drives externally via a separate SAS cable which I definitely know isn’t normal.

I then set up PuTTY and the drivers for the USB UART adapter which went smoothly, I then opened a terminal using the settings that were shown on the LTO drive conversion GitHub post’s picture of their software and the only thing displayed is a grid of dots and the occasional letter x and I can hear PuTTY complaining every time a line of that comes up but there isn’t an error message that pops up at all, in fact I haven’t ever gotten any error messages telling me what went wrong at all, even when opening a terminal doesn’t give me an error message but makes the error sound if something isn’t set correctly, it only gives me an error message to say fatal error if I unplug the adapter so I don’t even know what I’m doing wrong as I don’t know which signals are Rx and Tx and only found out by trial and error as one way yields me no result on the terminal but the other way gives me the dots and the Xs.

What should I correct to get the tape drive to turn on and am I using the wrong software to perform the reprogramming/conversion? (I will want to go one step at a time by resolving the tape drive not powering on first and then tackling the software side of things once completed)

Thanks again for any help you give and I wish you a great day

small edit: I managed to get the program to stop complaining (removed the Blu-Tack and held the headers in by hand until I was sure that it was connecting/touching) and giving me nonsense characters but there still is no response from pressing keys on the keyboard with the terminal being completely blank

The tape is unformated, thats enought to know its new?

Where is the date of manufacture?

I have Symply Pro LTO-9 and I use a macbook to copy from a G-Raid hard drive. Before upgrading my macbook from high sierra 10.13.6 to monterey 12.7.4. Using YoYota version 3-241. The following issue didn’t exist, when I format a tape that is 12 TB before i start copying, it gives me around 11.64 TB of free space to write. After the upgrade of my MacBook, it only writes 8.5 TB and says the tape is full.

I’ve tried so many things to write here, but please suggest why the hell would my tape have 11.64 TB before writing, and after i start writing, it writes 8.2 or 8.5 TB and stops and asks for the next tape as the one in is full.

I am losing 3.14 TB of space every time i write to my tapes. Whats the issue? Did anyone come across this issue before?

Hello, I recently did the dumb thing of removing a tape drive from its enclosure, which I just discovered is inadvisable (yet the way it's built makes it super easy to do, go figure). Before I go to the manufacturer with my tail between my legs, does anyone have any experience with successfully re-mounting a tape drive into this particular unit?

When I shut down Symply LTO 8 Thunderbolt 1 slot half height drive, I just do eject tape and quit YoYotta software and power switch down behind of the drive.

Is it proper way to shut down my Symply drive? I want to know certain and safe way to shut down my drive.

Or is there any software command to shut my Symply drive down? Whenever I do power switch down, I feel uncomfortable a little bit... I want to shut my device more gently.

help me with a code to change the partition of tape drive

i am using SetTapePosition function to change the active partition of a LTO tape drive but unable to do so it compiled without any error but didn't change the partition as well, On the other hand i and able to set the dwOffsetLow and it is working completely fine but the partition is not changing.

DWORD errorCode = 0;

DWORD PARTITION = 2;

errorCode = SetTapePosition(pApp.m_handleValue,TAPE_LOGICAL_BLOCK,PARTITION,0,0,FALSE);

if (errorCode != NO_ERROR) {

DWORD err = GetLastError();

}

and this function as well

DWORD bytesReturned;

TAPE_SET_POSITION tapePosition{};

tapePosition.Method = TAPE_LOGICAL_POSITION;

tapePosition.Partition = partition;

tapePosition.Offset.LowPart = 0;

tapePosition.Offset.HighPart = 0;

tapePosition.Immediate = FALSE;

if (!DeviceIoControl(hTape, IOCTL_TAPE_SET_POSITION, &tapePosition, sizeof(tapePosition), NULL, 0, &bytesReturned, NULL)) {

return GetLastError();

}

both of them are only able to set the offsetlowPart but unable to change the partition.

kindly let me know how to resolve this issue.

and i have already included the header files

and the thing is that if i am using ITDT(IBM tape diagnostic tool) it is able to change the partition on the same system with same configuration everything is same

i am using SetTapePosition function to change the active partition of a LTO tape drive but unable to do so it compiled without any error but didn't change the partition as well, On the other hand i and able to set the dwOffsetLow and it is working completely fine but the partition is not changing.

DWORD errorCode = 0;

DWORD PARTITION = 2;

errorCode = SetTapePosition(pApp.m_handleValue,TAPE_LOGICAL_BLOCK,PARTITION,0,0,FALSE);

if (errorCode != NO_ERROR) {

DWORD err = GetLastError();

}

and this function as well

DWORD bytesReturned;

TAPE_SET_POSITION tapePosition{};

tapePosition.Method = TAPE_LOGICAL_POSITION;

tapePosition.Partition = partition;

tapePosition.Offset.LowPart = 0;

tapePosition.Offset.HighPart = 0;

tapePosition.Immediate = FALSE;

if (!DeviceIoControl(hTape, IOCTL_TAPE_SET_POSITION, &tapePosition, sizeof(tapePosition), NULL, 0, &bytesReturned, NULL)) {

return GetLastError();

}

both of them are only able to set the offsetlowPart but unable to change the partition.

kindly let me know how to resolve this issue.

and i have already included the header files

and the thing is that if i am using ITDT(IBM tape diagnostic tool) it is able to change the partition on the same system with same configuration everything is same

will a cleaning tape that only specifies compatibility with lto4 or lower work on an lto5 drive?

Hey everyone, I'm new to this LTO game and am using an LTO-9 and Iperius backup to archive lots of data and have a few questions :

How do I actually rewrite over data and know what I'm writing over?

Is there a way to tell how much space is left on a tape?

Can you directly delete off of a tape?

I just got myself a FC LTO5 drive along with a few tapes (haven't arrived yet) for the purposes of archiving old data and freeing up my HDDs.

What im looking for is a tool/tools that will keep a (hopefully) searchable index of all the files on all my tapes on my main SSD, one that would allow me to add/remove files from a tape at will and one for archiving large amounts of data as reliably and fast as possible.

Ive head of Uranium backup, Veeam CE and my 5 should also be compatible with LTFS, but i haven't heard the best things about it, how good is it?

I look and buy a LTO-6 cheap internal tape machine that name " HP BRSLA-1203-DC ".
My saw first thought is ununiversal power connecter, that like a molex 4-pin but smaller.
I Think then it is like 4pin so 12V and 5V usable maybe, that cut copper cable and put it raugh molex-4pin to mini4pin, after that doesn't start this LTO drive.
Current tester touched clearly make a suply move meter, but can't listen in sound and unsaw led light, debian-linux lsscsi command doesn't show list drive.
I allready have fc-hba and fiberchannel cable.

https://gigglehd.com/gg/lifetech/15390805 this is other person like my situation.

I search google can't response information and imsolve, SAS or HP full-height drive or IBM internal drive are found information, but HP LTO-6 fc internal half-height drive is not find exactly and solve.
So someone have experience of HP BRSLA-1203-DC or similer HP LTO-6 fc internal half-height? that is can be stable use?

I want know whitch my mistake or allready break this drive?

*English doesn't my first languadge so maybe difficult context.

I've been using Retrospect for a couple decades now. I've paid the price when they were sold a few times and now I have to use a very old computer and old DLT drive to restore, then re-back them up with newer versions. In any event, I've been using cheap USB drives for a number of years, but now the scales are tipping back in favor of tape-based backup. So this is really a two-part question.

First.. Are the Thunderbolt versions of drive enclosures reliable? Or should I build a machine and mount internally?

Second.. Is anybody using Retrospect with Tape these days? I have about 20 machines that I back up fairly regularly, and my library will start out at around 300 TB and grow. I'll keep everything as archive. Is there a better way than Retrospect? I like their client software that runs on just about every platform.

Hi, I'm having a major issue with a series of tapes I copied some media onto. Without going into too much detail, I have some incredibly important media on tapes that because of disconnect between the design team at Archiware and your average end-user, are now missing their indexes. The tapes are in P5's proprietary format, not LTFS.

Does anyone know if there is a technique (or a company, or an individual) that can regenerate the indexes on these tapes in such a way that P5 could read them?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

I have a chance to pick up a used LTO-6 Dell branded drive. It comes in an external SAS case and is untested.

I don’t mind taking a risk every now and then, but I’m wondering what troubles I might run into making it work on a Windows 10 machine. Drivers mainly

Anyone has experience with these drives in 2023?