The LTO program has introduced a new capability to add 50% capacity to HPE LTO-7 media used in LTO-8 drives.

By simply adding a designated Type M or M8 media label, a new HPE LTO-7 tape can be increased to 9TB native capacity (increased from the standard 6TB).  

The first time a tape drive writes to a new tape, the device performs an initialization that sets up tables in the cartridge memory, including detail of the track locations, the initializing drive and other housekeeping information.  These tables are different for LTO-7 initialized cartridges and LTO-7 Type M initialized cartridges, so the drive must be set up to choose the correct initialization method.

View the video below to see how HPE Type M / M8 LTO media dramatically improves storage cost per TB, reduces data centre footprint and cuts energy consumption.