How Long Do Backup Tapes Last?The period of time that a backup tape will last depends entirely on whether your are talking about how long a tape will hold data or how long until it wears out from constant re-use. Generally, good-quality backup tapes will last for at least 10 years if they are kept under "reasonable conditions", reasonable conditions means constant room temperature, humidity, and the like. If you're comfortable, your tapes are comfortable. Heat and dust are the greatest enemies of tapes in storage, so keep them in their dust-proof containers, as well as keeping them at room temperature. Tapes that are being used to back up data will eventually wear out after a number of passes through the tape drive. How soon this happens depends partially on conditions, but mostly on how often the tape used. Do you have any video tapes that you've watched so often that the tape wears out? It's the same principle. Assuming the tapes are operated at reasonable temperature and humidity, and that they are protected from dust and dirt, tape life will depend on how many passes the tape makes through the drive. This is usually a function of how many times the tape is used at normal speed, but if the tape 'shoeshines' (runs back and forth as it records the data) because the system can't feed data to the tape fast enough, the life expectancy of the tape will be greatly reduced. Since you don't want to take a chance on losing the data on the tape, a good rule of thumb is to replace your backup tapes at least once a year. This is almost always well before the tape shows signs of serious wear, so you can use tapes that are reaching the end of their useful life to archive data that will not be accessed frequently.
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