It's A Digital Disease!

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/mwomrbash on 2025-07-28 15:08:46+00:00.

Hello,

I am considering investing in a tape backup for my homelab. I have important business and personal files that I want to preserve.

I have been looking at the Dell PowerVault 124T LTO6-140 Automatic Library. I have a few questions for anyone who knows about these things:

1. Which internal tape drives are compatible with the above library? Any chance I can add an LTO6 or LTO7 drive to it? Or am I limited to an LOT5 drive?
2. Can I install a drive from a different vendor than Dell?
3. The manual shows that I have to connect the SAS cable and an Ethernet cable to my computer; Is the Ethernet just for management, or is it needed to actually conduct backups?
4. Is it possible to use LTO5 tapes with an LTO6 drive? I understand I would get less storage; the question is more on backwards compatibility.
5. I am planning on connecting the Tape Library to my ProxMox server with a dedicated SSD as a buffer. Is it possible to pause between tape changes to refill the SSD?