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I have a Dell PowerEdge R420, and I ran out of backup tapes.

I really need some quickly, but my supplier is out of them - and they are on back order till after Thanksgiving.

I had been using Dell LTO Ultrium x 10 - 1.5 TB (342-1175).

Is it possible to use the IBM LTO-5 Ultrium Tape 1.5TB/ 3TB?

Or do you need to use Dell Tapes in a Dell tape drive?

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    It's not a Dell tape drive, it's a Quantum tape drive. Any decently-branded LTO-5 tape should be fine in it.
    – MadHatter
    Oct 22, 2014 at 15:46

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You don't need to use Dell tapes, LTO types are compatible, just like old school floppies etc.

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I realize this post is pretty old (2014 and it is now 2020). But the information still applies today.

We have been a tape drive repair facility for 30 years and after testing, refurbishing and repairing thousands of tape drives, we have discovered a few things.

Most importantly, you should use media manufactured by the drive manufacturer. Do not use HP media in an IBM drive or vice versa. The reason for this is that the tape tension, thickness of media and orientation of the rollers are different in each manufacturers drives. Although it will work, most likely you will get an extremely dirty R/W head on your IBM drive if you use HP media. It is recommended that you use Fuji media in an IBM drive. Fuji produces media for Fuji, IBM and DELL. Fuji also manufactures media for Quantum. But we found that Quantum [Certified] media is made by Sony, which would be recommended for HP.

It is also important to use BaFe (Barium Ferrite) media in an IBM LTO6 and up tape drive. Do not use MP (Metal Particulate) media in an LTO6 or newer tape drive. This is where the problem of using LTO5 media in an LTO6 tape drive (even just to read the data) is a problem. There is no BaFe LTO5 media, so once again you are using MP media in an LTO6 tape drive designed to use BaFe.

Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD do something:

  • You CAN use LTO4 media in an LTO5 tape drive, but you SHOULDN'T

  • You CAN use HP media in an IBM tape drive, but you SHOULDN'T

If you don't follow those 2 words of advice, we will see your tape drive in for repair real soon. The R/W head will get 'gunked up' real quick. If not totally ruined.

Use Fuji media in IBM drives and HP, Sony, Maxell etc. in HP tape drives. Unless your HP tape drive is LTO7 or later because the actual tape drive would have been made by IBM.

For more detailed information you can go to our website: https://mwtss.com

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In general LTO tapes are compatible across brands. But speaking from personal experience (from LTO4 tapes), there is a major variation in quality between batches of tapes. Even if you stick with only one vendor of tapes, you may experience that different batches of tapes vary in quality.

There can be a variation in capacity between individual tapes. But even worse, new tapes may wear down your tape heads, if you use enough of them. Those two factors combined can lead to large variation in tape capacity. I have seen as much as a threefold drop in capacity.

In rare cases the quality of a batch of tapes is so bad that they get stuck in the drive and you won't be able to use that drive anymore.

The important question to ask is, do you have a warranty or service contract which covers in case those new tapes harm your drive? I have seen it happen with tapes that were compatible but of poor quality.

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  • Is that still an issue with current generation tapes? LTO4 is quite ancient.
    – TomTom
    Oct 23, 2014 at 10:53
  • @TomTom It was still an issue in 2011 when I decided that after years of working full time on backups (and nothing else) it was time for me to try something new. At the time I hadn't seen enough of LTO5 to know if there was an issue. But I did see that LTO5 drives with LTO4 tapes were doing significantly worse. One vendor had a promising idea for a treatment that could be applied to new tapes before they were put into use. Once that eventually got released, I wasn't working with backups anymore.
    – kasperd
    Oct 23, 2014 at 11:01

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