Mount a LTO tape-drive like an External HDD

[brynhildur]

My system contains lot of data regarding my projects because I am an engineering student. The project data is very much important as like me. I don’t want to lose it. So I brought the LTO tape drive to back-up it. I am using the Retrospect backup software. Is it possible to mount the tape drive like the removable Hard Disk? I need to directly open the different tapes. I you have any information about this please pass to me. It is a very important task to me.

[Savannah87]

I think this is the first time you are using the tape drives. Have you seen anywhere that Tape drives mounted to computer like normal Hard Drives? Tape drives are the Sequential storage devices. They provide random access to data storage, unlike the disk drive. So it is impossible to mount it like HD. In order to access or read/write the data you will need its original software. I heard that some java script enables tape drives to browse. I did not find it yet. Just give it a try.

[Aashirya]

I am not much aware about the software that allows opening the different tapes directly. Also the backup software you are using not specifically created for Tape drives. To Backup on Tape drive you will need its own original software. The Tape Drives are used to store data for long term. So it cannot be used and mount like a removable Hard Disk. Also make sure that make Backup on tape drive without the appropriate software is the case of Disaster.

[Akaashath]

The LTO or the Linear Tape-Open is a magnetic tape based storage device. It can hold nearly 100GB to 1.5TB in a single Cartridge. Now a day it is not the popular storage for personnel usage. So I suggest you to copy or backup the data by sing the external removable HD. This External HDD comes with its own software and the encryption, which will protect the data from the unauthorized users. But in Tape drives I don’t think that these kinds of features are included.