• High capacity LTO-10 drive offers 30TB native storage for Apple Mac Mini setups
• Offline tape storage adds security benefits through air gaps and built in encryption
• Desktop LTO-10 unit provides SSD like transfer speeds for long term archiving tasks

If you have serious storage needs, you’ll be interested to know it’s possible to attach a 30TB LTO-10 tape drive to an Apple Mac Mini, which could be a useful, if rather pricey, solution for your long term backups.

The SymplyPRO XTF SAS LTO-10 Desktop Tape Drive supports native transfer speeds that sit close to what a standard SATA SSD can reach.

LTO-10 cartridges offer 30TB of native capacity and a stated 400MB/s read and write speed. The figure increases to up to 75TB if you use compression (2.5:1) with a potential 900MB/s to 1000MB/s transfer rate, although that depends entirely on how easily the data compresses.

LTO-10 only

The full height, small chassis SymplyPRO XTF SAS LTO-10 is available to buy at B&H for $11,395.25. Connection to a Mac Mini or any recent macOS system is possible through a compatible Thunderbolt to SAS setup.

The drive includes dual 12Gb/s SFF8644 ports and comes with the cable required for that link. It also ships with a data cartridge, cleaning cartridge, worldwide power cords, and Symply’s LTFS software, so buyers can begin writing to tape immediately.

The unit supports WORM cartridges and 256 bit encryption, which helps if the goal is secure long term retention rather than short term access.

Because LTO cartridges can be stored offline, they’re often used to create an air gap that keeps backups away from remote attacks.

When combined with encryption, this approach adds another handy layer of protection should a cartridge unfortunately wind up getting lost or misplaced.

LTO-10 is the newest generation of the tape format and the drive isn’t compatible with LTO-9 media, so existing libraries can’t be reused.

However, it will be compatible with the new enterprise LTO-10 40TB native cartridges (up to 100TB compressed) announced by the LTO Program last month.

30TB LTO-10 tapes cost around $300 each, compared to LTO-9 generation, which will set you back around $100 (18TB native/45TB compressed).

Even so, the ability to connect a high capacity desktop tape system to a compact Apple machine could appeal to archivists, production teams, or users who need cold storage without running dedicated rack hardware.

Tape isn’t designed to replace everyday SSDs of course, but its capacity, low error rates, and long shelf life are attractive for storing bulk data that doesn’t need to be accessed all that often.

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Wayne Williams is a freelancer writing news for TechRadar Pro. He has been writing about computers, technology, and the web for 30 years. In that time he wrote for most of the UK’s PC magazines, and launched, edited and published a number of them too.