LTO 4 Drive with LTO 5 tapes

[kevin_lane]

should of checked this really does any one know if you can use lto 5 tapes with the lto 4 drive as when i put mine (lto 5 tape) the drive rejected it. is this due the encryption of the tape and drive ? we are backing up disk to disk but i would still like a tape at the end of the week

[Hightower]

What are the backward compatibility characteristics of the Ultrium format?

The LTO Ultrium compatibility is defined with two concepts demonstrating investment protection: 1) An Ultrium drive can read data from a cartridge in its own generation and two prior generations. 2) An Ultrium drive can write data to a cartridge in its own generation and to a cartridge from the immediate prior generation in the prior generation format.

For example:

- An Ultrium format Generation 5 drive will read and write data on an Ultrium format Generation 4 cartridge as specified by the Generation 4 format and read data on an Ultrium format Generation 3 drive.

- An Ultrium format Generation 4 drive will read and write data on an Ultrium format Generation 3 cartridge as specified by the Generation 3 format and read data on an Ultrium format Generation 2 drive

 

 

 

Src: Ultrium - LTO Technology - About LTO - FAQs

 

 

But obviously not the other way around. I suppose you could think of it like trying to play a PS3 game on a PS2

[Asuka]

Thanks for sharing knowledge...

 

LTO-4

o First mechanisms approved in April 2007.[15] First media approved in May 2007.

o Doubled capacity again to 800 GB.

o Increased data transfer rate to 120 MB/s (maximum).

o Introduced drive level encryption feature using 256-bit AES-GCM .

 

LTO-5

o Specifications announced January 19, 2010. The first LTO-5 drives appeared on the market in Q2, 2010

o Nearly doubled capacity to 1.5 TB (1500 GB)

o Increased data transfer rate to 140 MB/s (maximum).

o Introduced partition feature that allows tape to be "split" into 2 separately writable areas. This feature is required by LTFS

[Naughty_Nigel]

should of checked this really does any one know if you can use lto 5 tapes with the lto 4 drive as when i put mine (lto 5 tape) the drive rejected it. is this due the encryption of the tape and drive ? we are backing up disk to disk but i would still like a tape at the end of the week

 

It won't work for the reasons already stated. I suspect the tape head design changes with each new generation, and in any case each tape cartridge has an embedded chip (4 KB if I remember correctly) which identifies the tape to the drive, contains a Serial No, and also stores usage and failure data.

 

Regardless of whether an LTO 4 drive can read and write to LTO 5 tapes; the LTO 4 drive will identify an LTO 5 tape cartridge as soon as it engages in the drive, and will spit it out. For what its worth, earlier generations of LTO tapes and drives do exactly the same.

 

NN