Tapes have been reliable storage devices for eons and have served well over the years. However, recently the market has become flooded with reconditioned tapes.

Recycled Tape Options

People are always on the lookout for a bargain or value for money. The price of a product becomes the determining factor when deciding on a purchase. Since storage devices are always required, entrepreneurs sensing a profitable business have started cleaning used tapes and selling them, at a fraction of the cost. There is a huge misconception that these recycled tapes are as good as new ones.

Corporations are constantly looking at cutting operation costs. Buying cheap recycled tapes helps them shrink budgets and they give little thought to the consequences. Reconditioned tapes are recycled and that is the bottom line. They cannot be as good as new. When data loss occurs due to using defective tapes the cost incurred for recovery more than makes up for any money saved.

Buying recycled tapes is being penny wise and pound foolish. However, one cannot say that every recycled tape sold is going to be faulty. One can keep using these cartridges and actually survive without data loss and then just the one time that you cannot afford to lose data, you will.

Choosing Recycled Tapes

There are some companies that are in the recycling business in a big way. They purchase used cartridges, inspect and test them and sell them as new. Since they are in the business in a big way, they try to ensure that these recycled tapes can be as good as new. Of course, there are the smaller players who are far less stringent in testing the recycled product. An unsuspecting customer may not really know the difference between the good recycled tapes and the indifferent ones.

If cost is really an issue and recycled tapes are the only storage device that one can afford, one must do some research. It is best to buy a product which the manufacturing company will certify and give a guarantee for. Since this is a recycled product there is no official standard of certification. One can only trust that an established company will not certify a bad product.

The Pros and Cons

The only real advantage of using recycled tapes is the cost factor. Recycled tapes are available for much less than a new one. If one has huge amounts of data to store, then it might make a difference to have a cheap option. The other possible advantage of using recycled tapes is that it helps prevent environment degradation by just disposing off cartridges.

The downside of using recycled tapes is far greater than the upside. The end user has no idea of the origin of the cartridge. Even though companies claim to run tests during the cleansing period, one really doesn’t know. Digital data is always difficult to erase completely and traces could be left behind in the recycled version.

A new tape has a definite shelf life. Regular wear and tear leads to its deterioration over time. If stored and maintained well, an original tape can last twenty years. In the case of recycled tapes, one has no idea what the shelf life is. It will more likely than not be far less than a new tape.

There is a greater chance that a recycled tape has traces of a virus from previous use. These viruses may not always be erased during the cleaning of the used cartridge. The ramifications of a possible virus attack are huge and one might end up losing important data. The cost of data recovery offsets any possible cost benefit from purchasing recycled tapes. In the end, it could not only turn out more expensive but also be terribly time-consuming.

Conclusion

There is a reason why some products are expensive and why some others are not. The difference between the two is quality. If the data we need stored is mission critical, recycled tapes are definitely not an option. A new rape offers far less risk and a much greater shelf life. In the long run, this might actually be the more economical option.

If one wants to store data that is not really important but one just wants to hang on to, then recycled tapes may not be a bad option. Either way, one must ensure that tapes whether new or recycled are well-maintained and stored in a clean and dry environment.