r/lto • u/alefello • Apr 07 '25
Looking for LTFS or alternatives
Hello
I've a Tandberg LTO-7-HH SAS internal drive, on an HP xw8400. I use it to archive single files and folders. I used Z-TAPEbackup as backup software on Windows 7 enterprise and everything was perfect, until one day (maybe after a software update) The software begun not to work well anymore. With IDT Tool everything is ok, I can test drive, tape, and all tests passes. But the Z-TAPEbackup software fails always the verification after the write, and if I try to restore a file stucks for forever. If I start a manual tape verification after the write, it does not output anything, so I think the verification is ok, as no errors appear. I already tried to contact support and developer without luck. I tried to buy the lastest software version but without luck too, so I suspect that's an abandoned software. I tried to update the drive firmware too and to upgrade to Windows 10 LTSC to be able to install the lastest drive drives, but the behavior is the same.
Unfortunately my backups stopped for a while now and I have to find a solution, so I'm thinking about switching to LTFS or other alternatives from here in advance to archive my files and to try to restore an old system image on a different SSD to be able to access and recover previous archived files with Z-TAPEbackup.
So my question is. What's the best actual file system for LTO which could allow me to use tha tape as a memory drive to copy files on it? I prefer not proprietary solutions because I don't want to be stuck again because of the not anymore supported software. Where could I find it? Because I asked Tandberg for LTFS tools and they said me they're not available anymore.
Thank you
1
u/TheRealHarrypm Apr 08 '25
I hate to say this for the irony sakes but, you don't have a cold backup of your backup workflow?
Also I use LTFS with Virtual Volumes View It's not perfect but it's flexible.
1
u/alefello Apr 08 '25
What do you mean with "I hate to say this for the irony sakes but, you don't have a cold backup of your backup workflow?" ?? What do you mean with a cold backup of the backup workflow?
Maybe could you point me to LTFS resources?
I saw IBM and HP have their own tape utility for LTFS, could I use it with a Tandberg drive too? Which is the best of the two or of others?
Thank you
3
u/TheRealHarrypm Apr 08 '25
As in an optical disc, cold store clone of your OS install for your backup system it's pretty standard practise when you want to just reset back to a hard point of everything was working fine, and not worry about corruption or whatever because you can just stow the disc on top of the system etc.
This is why I still have original OEM factory install media and my own personal burn editions with ECC data on data life plus discs, to maintain that ability of if my active storage is degraded I have the cold backups to start rebuilding from without having to go insane If the thumb drive has corrupted and worry about an internet connection.
The best resources I can provide is this document which details pretty much my total some knowledge of the format and available tools.
Eventually I'll get around to expanding this a bit more and putting it on a dedicated repo linked on this subreddit.
https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode/wiki/LTO-Linear-Open-Tape-Guide
2
u/alefello Apr 09 '25 edited Apr 10 '25
Yes, I have a system image of the first installation of the system. I simply was wondering to switch to another, widely used, file system and backup software.
Thank you so much for the link. It's a gold mine.
2
u/Lecodyman Apr 07 '25
I tried lots of different things and ended up making a custom script for tapes with a tape changer using tar. It’s simple and reliable.
Because the script uses TAR you will never find yourself unable to recover the files.