Hi Jayney,

I would follow the IT model and continue with LTO if you have the data 
to warrant the cost. BTW: The "IT model" suggests two copies of your LTO 
tapes separated geographically with "near line" access to the files 
being on separate media of your choice. The occasion of the computer 
power supply going down and taking everything inside the case with it 
(been there, done that) is basically the cost of doing business.

We asked for this when we taught sand how to think.

Corey
Corey Bailey Audio Engineering

On 1/26/2016 1:30 PM, subscribe arsclist Jayney Wallick Jayney Jayney 
Wallick Bard at Large www.bardatlarge.com (206) 286-6691 wrote:
> Hi There,
>
> I record live music, and have been doing so since 1974. Several years ago I
> managed to transfer what I wanted to save to DDS tape, until I started
> recording to Compact Flash cards in 2012. Since then I've been backing
> everything up to LTO until late last month/year when my computer's power
> supply failed, frying the LTO drive in the process. I have only filled up
> one LTO tape in that time, and had started a second late in 2014. The
> partial tape had to be sacrificed to run the diagnostics used to determine
> that the LTO drive was damaged.
>
> I know of a service that can transfer LTO tapes to other media. My research
> seems to indicate that both RDX drives and LTO tapes are life-tested to last
> 30 years. Given that the RDX drive can be an external USB drive, and the LTO
> drive has to have a computer-specific SAS or some other such card to support
> it, and requires separate installation, which of these media do you think is
> more archival? Just to be clear, I record on two compact flash cards, so
> already have the audio files in two places when I leave the concert, and
> then go home and back them up to have a third place. Do you think there's an
> advantage, archivally speaking, between LTO and RDX, or is it six of one,
> and half a dozen of the other? I'd like to make a purchase decision by 1-29-
> 16 if at all possible, so if someone could please reply soon I'd greatly
> appreciate it.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Jayney
>
>