LTO or Linear Tape Open is a magnetic tape data media that was initiated and developed by IBM, Seagate and Hewlett-Packard in order to counter Sony AIT tape. There were two forms of LTOs: Accelis and Ultrium. The Accelis form of LTO tapes was developed in 1997 for fast data access. However the LTO Accelis tape never exceeded the LTO Ultrium tape performance wise and so there was never a demand for the Accelis form of the LTO tape. The LTO form Ultrium is a half-inch magnetic tape with a single reel (contrasting with the 8mm double reel Accelis). The Ultrium was developed as a drop-in replacement for the DLT (developed by Digital Equipment Corporation and now owned by Quantum). LTO Ultrium tape uses a single reel to maximize storage capacity and thus is better suited for archival use. An Ultrium LTO drive is also backward compatible and contains a strong error correction algorithm that makes data recovery possible when lost data is within one track or up to 32 mm of the tape medium. The LTO Ultrium is very popular and LTO in common usage usually refers to the LTO Ultrium as the LTO Accelis are no longer commercially available. Some of the more popular LTO Ultrium tapes are: The 183800 and LTX100G LTO-1 tape. The 183850, LTX200G and C7972A LTO-2 tape. The 183900, LTX400G and C7973A LTO-3 tape. The 183906 and 26592 LTO-4 tape.
LTO tape products and versions available at Tape4Backup are: LTO 1, LTO 2, LTO 3, LTO 4, LTO Barcode Labels, LTO Cartridge Memory Reader, LTO Cleaning Cartridge and LTO Empty Cases.