# LTO tape 23 Hacker News commenters recommended LTO tape and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Cheap per terabyte and rated for decades of storage, so people use it for large archives. Caveat: the drive is expensive and old drives are hard to find. ## Why people recommend it - Low cost per terabyte (9 comments): "For a few hundred TiB, LTO-9 magnetic tapes (18 TB per cartridge) become cheaper than hard disks, despite the huge cost of the tape drive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46742602)) "Used tapes (with a lot of life left in them) on ebay are far less expensive per TB" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49973423)) "they are a lot cheaper than optical discs. If you can afford the drive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47020706)) - Rated for decades of storage (5 comments): "The LTO cartridges are quite robust and they are guaranteed for 30 years of storage after you write some data on them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46070933)) "LTO tapes are generally rated for decades of use so they’re pretty durable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47084133)) "Tapes themselves are very affordable and have a good shelf lifespan." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47312893)) - Built for long-term archival (4 comments): "Using LTO specifically for the purpose it was designed for is the exact opposite of insanity." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47020630)) "This is exactly how you are supposed to store archival media for decades, not on a NAS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49287982)) "LTO via LTFS is probably your best long term bet." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47549842)) - Mature, reliable, widely available format (4 comments): "these are battle-tested, supported for a long time, available, reliable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47024221)) "tapes are more reliable, more compact, faster for sequential transfers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47023150)) "I'd trust a used tape over a used hard drive every time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49973479)) ## What people warn about - Not user-friendly for everyday people (4 comments): "Tape is really complicated and physically challenging, and there are no incentives for people investing insane amounts of time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46068537)) "LTO tapes are the worst possible format for passing on family photos to family members." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49971723)) "LTO is certainly not user-friendly, but neither is it especially user-hostile." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49972134)) - Long-term readability is uncertain (3 comments): "the small magnetic domains don't hold data as long as the mechanical changes in optical disks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47017540)) "period N is going to be effectively 0 for any LTO generation I could possibly buy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47020322)) "stories about data on LTO tapes being unreadable after 5 years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018375)) - Drives expensive and hard to find (2 comments): "they are a lot cheaper than optical discs. If you can afford the drive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47020706)) "Super expensive, and hard to find drives." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47021954)) - Compatibility across generations is shrinking (2 comments): "I'm not sure I would bet on having compatible hardware to read a particular LTO generation tape" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47021759)) "Inter-generation compatibility has been going downhill recently" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48460723)) ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=LTO-10+tape+cartridge&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link) - [Official site](https://www.lto.org/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "LTO tape", https://hackerapproved.com/p/lto-tape/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).