Tape drives, used for storing data, are an aesthetic modern day version of the tape recorder. They also possess similar functionality. Traditional tape recorders were used to read and record analog sound signals on encased magnetic tapes known as cassettes, whereas tape drives (which are also known as tape units or streamers), read and record digital bits of data on to encased magnetic tapes, known as cartridges.

Tape drives were first introduced in 1951, by Remington Rand. They were popularised by IBM. The initial tape drives i.e. vacuum-column tape drives, resembled medium-sized cupboards and took up floor space, compared to their 5.5 or 3.5 inch high descendants available today.

Tape drives are in-built or available as external add-ons to your computer. Popular standards of tape drives today are Digital Linear Tape (DLT), Linear Type Open (LTO) and the few Digital Audio Tape (DAT) or Digital Data Storage (DDS) types.

The storage capacity of magnetic tapes varies between 10 gigabytes to 1600 gigabytes (a 3200 gigabyte tape is on the cards). Even though the density of area available on tape is less than that of a hard disk, the surface area is greater on tape. For a 100 gigabyte data pile, a human being would have to insert about 20 DVDs successively. That's no sweat for a tape drive. A comparable gargantuan storage device, on planet earth, is yet to be unleashed in the market.

The access time for reading or storing data by your tape drive is a competitive 120 megabytes per second. In the near future, 260 megabytes per second transfer speeds are envisaged (Can you hear a whole lot of hard disks panting out there, trying to catch up?).

Most System Administrators or the all-knowing techies prefer tape drives for three reasons. Though the backing up or retrieval process (to and from the tape) may be a tad slower than an external hard disk or thumb drive, the reliability of storing and retrieving the data (by the dependable tape drive) is many notches higher than other conventional storage devices. Peace of mind is guaranteed. Add to that a shelf life of 30 years for the storage medium!

The next compulsive reason is a bit contradictory. Ignore its retail price. Calculate the cost in terms of per bit of data. The tape drive is undoubtedly the cheapest among all storage devices, when mountains of data are involved. It isn't a white elephant, though it may appear so. The retail price is peanuts, compared to the peace of mind it delivers.

The third crucial reason for the popularity of the tape drive is due to its ‘portability' (not just its small physical size). Tape drives are easily supported across generations of hardware (i.e. older machines to the new) and across various competing Operating Systems and their respective flavours.

However, tape drives also have their drawbacks. Tape drives read and store data on tapes, in a sequential fashion i.e. one after the other. Your data is in queue and no jumping the queue, whatsoever. That can lead to a minor but unnoticed performance drawback.

Despite the long shelf life of 30 years, your stored data or the magnetic tape itself will not hold up even for 3 seconds, if exposed to magnetic fields, excess heat or liquids. Sometimes, rare mechanical problems with the tape conveyor (inside the tape drive unit) can cause problems or irreparable damage to the tape unit hardware. If not stored properly, in proper atmospheric conditions, the tape drive and the magnetic tape can be attacked by fungal growth.

The one dollar cost of the CD or DVD is definitely cheaper, if the data to be stored onto the tape is less than 4 gigabytes or is in hundreds of megabytes. A single tape drive can cost thousands of dollars and a tape cartridge isn't cheap at $40. So using a tape drive for home use or for small data storage needs is a strict no no.

Voluminous data and sequential operation (remember the queue system) indirectly mean that it will consume 15 minutes to back up 100 gigabytes of data (@ 120 megabytes per second). That is a long time for a data backup, by modern day data transfer speeds.

Tape drives can suffer from wear and tear of the moving parts inside it, due to overworking of the tape drive or the frequent start-stop motion of these mechanical parts caused by irregular or slow, unsteady streaming of data from the computer.

Reliable giant, thy name is a tape drive!