What is the difference between the types (generations) of LTO?

Generation	Capacity		Data Transfer Speed	Additional Features
	Native	Compressed
LTO-1	100GB	200GB	40 MB/sec
LTO-2	200GB	400GB	80 MB/sec
LTO-3	400GB	800GB	160 MB/sec	Write Once Read Many (WORM) cassettes available.
LTO-4	800GB	1.6TB	240 MB/sec	Write Once Read Many (WORM)  cassettes available.
LTO-5	1.5TB	3TB	280 MB/sec	1. Write Once Read Many cassettes available. 2. All tapes include partitioning feature that allows one partition to hold the index, which tells the drive exactly where a file is located. The second partition holds the content.

The future generations of
LTO will offer what you probably expected, a higher amount of capacity and
faster data transfer speed. Here’s what you can look forward to in the years
to come:

• Generation
  6: 8 TB capacity and data transfer speed up to 525 MB/s
  
  
• Generation
  7: 16 TB and data transfer speed up to 788 MB/s
  
  
• Generation 8: 32 TB and data transfer speed up to
  1,1180 MB/s

What is LTO tape?

It’s magnetic tape used for data storage. LTO stands for Linear Tape Open. It was originally developed in the late 1990s by HP, IBM and Quantum. LTO is widely used with small and large computer systems, usually for backup, but also for archiving.

What is LTO partitioning?

LTO Partitioning and the new Linear Tape File System allow LTO Ultirum 5 to function like a hard drive. (Notice, I didn't say it's as fast as a hard drive, I said it functions as one.)

By partitioning the tape, it allows one partition to hold the index, which tells the drive exactly where a file is located. The second partition holds the content.

What does WORM mean?

WORM = Write Once, Read Many.

WORM stands for Write Once, Read Many.  It means your data storage can be written to once (not edited or saved "over") but you can read from it multiple times. This is a valuable feature for archiving because you can't accidentally erase something and no one can tamper with the existing files.

Why are two different capacities listed on LTO packages?

The first capacity listed (the one on the left) is the native capacity. This is how much data the tape holds with no data compression. The second number is for compressed data (assuming 2:1 compression).

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