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My SD card suddenly stopped working – it’s not showing up on my computer or phone. I’ve tried different adapters and devices, but it’s still not detected. Is there any way to recover the data or fix it, or is it completely dead?
LTO tape failures are typically caused by physical damage, environmental conditions, or operational errors. Frequent read/write use can wear the tape, while dropping, bending, or mishandling cartridges can cause damage. Heat, humidity, or dryness can also degrade the media. Tape drive problems, like dirty or misaligned heads, and compatibility or firmware issues may lead to read/write errors. Power interruptions during writing and natural magnetic decay over time can also affect tapes. In most cases, failures are due to these factors rather than the tape itself.
LTO tapes are usually more cost-effective than cloud storage for storing large amounts of data long-term that is accessed infrequently. The upfront cost for tape drives and libraries is higher, but the ongoing per-terabyte cost is lower. Tapes have a long lifespan, require no power while stored, and are protected from online threats. Cloud storage is easier to scale and allows immediate access to data, but monthly fees and retrieval costs can add up. For archival purposes, LTO is generally the cheaper option, while cloud storage is better for data that needs frequent access. Many organizations use both, keeping archives on tape and active data in the cloud.
For LTO tape drives, the choice of software depends on how you plan to use them and the scale of your backups:
1. LTFS (Linear Tape File System)
Treats the tape like a normal filesystem, allowing drag-and-drop of files.
Simple for archiving and sharing tapes between systems.
Not ideal for incremental backups or managing large datasets efficiently.
2. Retrospect
Commercial software with automated backups, scheduling, and cataloging.
Works with multiple drives and tape libraries.
Suitable for businesses that need regular, managed backups.
3. Bareos / Bacula
Open-source software for automated tape rotation, incremental backups, and large libraries.
Supports Linux, Windows, and macOS.
Setup is more complex but works well for IT teams managing many tapes or servers.
4. Other options
IBM Spectrum Protect or Tivoli Storage Manager for enterprise setups with automated policies and retention management.
Veeam Backup & Replication can write to LTO via a tape server.
Simple scripts using tar or rsync with LTFS for Linux/Unix systems.
You have an IBM Power9 S914 server with 64 GB of RAM, an HMC 7063-CR1, and a TS4300 tape library that holds 40 LTO cartridges. This is enterprise hardware intended for running AIX or Linux on POWER9 and managing large-scale tape backups, and it is very different from standard x86 servers like your Dells. Its resale value is roughly $3,000–$8,000 depending on the CPU, RAM, and whether tape drives are included. The most practical way to sell it is through IT resellers, enterprise auctions, or to universities and labs. Keeping it would provide a platform for learning POWER systems and enterprise backup workflows, but for a home lab focused on media or SaaS, selling it and using the proceeds for modern x86 servers is likely more useful.
You have an IBM Power9 S914 server with 64 GB of RAM, an HMC 7063-CR1, and a TS4300 tape library that holds 40 LTO cartridges. This is enterprise hardware intended for running AIX or Linux on POWER9 and managing large-scale tape backups, and it is very different from standard x86 servers like your Dells. Its resale value is roughly $3,000–$8,000 depending on the CPU, RAM, and whether tape drives are included. The most practical way to sell it is through IT resellers, enterprise auctions, or to universities and labs. Keeping it would provide a platform for learning POWER systems and enterprise backup workflows, but for a home lab focused on media or SaaS, selling it and using the proceeds for modern x86 servers is likely more useful.
The ZFS mirror pool became degraded after one drive failed, and the second drive showed errors during resilvering, likely due to heavy I/O on large drives. Keeping both drives active and using the system during recovery slowed resilvering and may have caused further issues. The system is now unstable and only boots in a degraded state. The best course of action is to stop all non-essential activity, run SMART tests on the remaining drive, back up important data immediately, and avoid writing to the pool. Once a replacement drive is ready, replace the failed drive and let resilvering finish without additional load. Temporarily removing L2ARC or SLOG devices can reduce stress during recovery. The priority is to stabilize the pool and secure the data before proceeding.
For your dealership with 11 employees, replacing the shared USB drive with a more secure and reliable solution is important. A small Synology NAS, such as the DS220j or DS223j, fits within your $500 budget and offers centralized local storage, RAID-based redundancy, and the ability to back up to Google Drive using Synology’s Cloud Sync or Active Backup for Google Workspace. This setup ensures data protection, remote access, and team collaboration. Using Google Drive directly is another option, providing cloud access and easy collaboration without extra hardware, but it relies on internet connectivity and offers less control over backups. Overall, a Synology NAS with Google Drive backup provides a practical balance of security, reliability, and scalability for your business.
For your HP 800 G4 Mini, the two NVMe drives can be set up in a RAID 1 for Docker applications with MySQL. The simplest and most reliable option is mdadm with Ext4, which gives stable RAID 1 redundancy, predictable database performance, and easy monitoring with LibreNMS. A ZFS mirror is also an option if you want checksums and snapshots, but it requires tuning for database performance and uses more memory. BTRFS RAID 1 is less suitable for write-heavy databases due to potential fragmentation and slower writes. Using two identical NVMe drives is recommended for consistent performance. Drive failure alerts can be handled through mdadm or ZFS and integrated with LibreNMS. Overall, mdadm + Ext4 is the straightforward choice, while ZFS adds extra protection with more complexity.
You can set up a RAID with NVMe drives in slots 3 and 4 on the MAG Z790 Tomahawk MAX WiFi motherboard without affecting your Windows 11 installation on slot 1, as long as the OS drive is not included in the RAID.
The motherboard supports Intel RST (Rapid Storage Technology) RAID for NVMe drives. You can create the RAID array through the BIOS or using the Intel RST utility in Windows. Check the motherboard manual for lane sharing, since some NVMe slots share PCIe lanes with SATA ports, which could disable certain ports if not configured correctly.
With two NVMe drives, you can choose:
RAID 0 (striping): Faster performance, no redundancy. If one drive fails, all data is lost.
RAID 1 (mirroring): Data is duplicated on both drives. One drive can fail without losing data.
SATA drives can also be configured in RAID using Intel RST. The same options apply depending on the number of drives.
Because your OS drive is separate, creating a RAID on slots 3 and 4 will not affect Windows 11.
Thanks everyone. Gonna give the full firmware flash a try tonight. Hoping it boots at least once so I can recover my stuff. Appreciate all the tips
Just adding this..don’t keep it on that error screen for too long, it can cause AMOLED burn-in. Try forcing a reboot every few minutes while you prep your files for flashing.
Smart move. There’s PC-based Android data recovery software that works once the phone gets detected again — it can scan internal storage and help you save photos, videos, etc. before you mess with system files again.
Got it, I’ll try that battery trick. If I manage to bring it back, I’ll use recovery software to pull my data before I flash anything else again.
Does anyone know any fixes? I am having the same issue.