Who are we?
We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.
We are one. We are legion. And we're trying really hard not to forget.
-- 5-4-3-2-1-bang from this thread
No. Not really
For long term storage LTO is the answer.
If cost/ lifetime storage are the only factors
I prefer drives; it is a cost I’m willing to pay as speed is more important, at home —At work we have both because 3-2-1
However I have been looking at tape for home use for some long term storage
Seconding this. I work with a lot of geophysical data, and there's a reason why our library is stored on LTO.
Once you have the infrastructure and supply chain for it, there's simply no cheaper way of long term storage per TB. The drives can be pricey, depending on which you use, but the standard IBM tapes are pretty cheap.
What is the cost per TB for LTO?
I don't know, we usually buy in bulk. I tried finding the invoice we got after a pallet of 15TB tapes, but I can't seem to find it.
There are also different tape types depending on which capabilities you need, which of course affects the price as well. We use a few variations on the IBM 3592 tape, but most of them are WORM, and in a tape format that "anyone" can read.
What drive would you recommend to a beginner?
Western digital external. My book 20tb or whatever size works for you. I blew through a 12 and 16 filled with photos and videos…
USB 3 and portable; I use exfat as my friend keeps a copy at his house.
And I just rotate through 3. One at home one at work and one with my friend.
FreeFileSync to keep everything updated