Ask Slashdot: Personal Tape Drive NAS? 268
New submitter hey_popey writes "I would like to piggyback on a previous Ask Slashdot question. Do you know of any realistic way to use a tape drive solution at home, not as a backup, but as a regular NAS? I would like, for example, to save the torrents of my Linux distributions on it, and at the same time, play the family videos on a computer. It would seem at a first glance that the transfer rates and capacity of Linear Tape-Open (1.5TB, 280MB/s in 2010) and the functionality of LTFS would allow me to do that, but I don't know the details, or whether this would be economically viable."
Re:Seek Time (Score:5, Funny)
I agree that a tape solution would not work well for torrent files, however using it to store movies should work well. If you wish to market it, I can suggest a name for it. You could call it a VCR. But whenever you do, do not call it Betamax, I don't think that would sell very well.
Re:begone rational thought (Score:5, Funny)
Leave him alone! help me with my RAIF - Redundant Array of Independent Floppies
Re:You cannot (Score:5, Funny)
Forget LTO, I recommend a massive array of Sinclair Microdrives [wikipedia.org]. I mean, if you're going for a silly and impractical tape solution, you might as well push the boat out.
Punch cards (Score:3, Funny)
Have you considered punch cards? You can get a vintange IBM 370 for only a few hundred thousand and a warehouse to store all the punch cards for just several million. Put it in China and you can have a few servants ravage up with forklifts and storage boxes with the cards and scramble to put them in the reader and upload it back to your home media server.
I mean who cares about using a cheap $200 external usb drive like everyone else pretending we somehow live in the 21st century ... pfft
More brilliant ways to re-purpose random stuff (Score:3, Funny)
And who needs a stove or oven? Simply wrap your food in your discarded tinfoil hats, and place it on your engine block; by the time you get to the office, breakfast will be ready.
I've also heard you can pound nails with a screwdriver if you adjust your grip...
As a co-worker of mine is fond of saying: "There are no stupid questions. Except for that one..."
Re:Nope. (Score:5, Funny)