I use LTO4 tapes.
- Bare LC drive eBay $~60. Pulled from a library so I had to switch the operation mode. Missing the bay door and kinda dinged up but worked.
- Celerity FC81en HBA card was $~30.
- 1.6TB tapes sold in packs of 5 around $11/tape. Probably can do better than that at higher volume.
Overall take: slow noisy writes but viable for cheap stable long-term storage.
Note: for each of the components above I set price alerts and waited. If in a hurry, maybe skip tape storage lol
Treczoks@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
One place to look at are web sites dealing with company bankruptcies. They are good for purchasing electronics and tools.
Back when windows and office licenses were bound to a sticker with a key number, I bought a stack of broken laptops for 10€. They were leftovers from an auction - nobody wanted them. I removed and tested RAM and harddisks, and then cut out the bottom of those laptops where the license stickers were. I sold each set of licenses, Windows and Office, for 10€ each, making a good profit. And kept the RAM and HDs that worked for my own use.