100% Restore from tapes frozen in ice

Freezing Test
The dangers to the ultra-thin media are crushing and puncturing by the sharp ice crystals, driven by the pressure of volumetric expansion (the reason that solid iron pipes burst in winter). The damage would make it all but impossible for a conventional streaming tape drive to perform its track-following read. Not so with VXA.

Disaster Tested
VXA's sophisticated 4-level Reed Solomon hardware error correction, the most sophisticated in the industry, guarantees that there is very little chance of losing data, even if the tape is damaged locally. VXA's use of Packet Technology means that the data can be restored even if the tape is warped or distorted from exposure to moisture. This advanced technology lets VXA restore data that would be lost with other tape drives.

How We Ran the Test¹
First, we wrote a VXA X-Tape Packet Tape Cartridge with 1 Gigabyte of data. To encase it in the ice, we first poured distilled water to a depth of two inches into a large, flat container, and froze it overnight in a refrigerator freezer. The next day, we set the tape flat on top of the ice, covered them in about two more inches of distilled water, then replaced the container in the freezer. Twelve hours later, the tape was frozen solid. We let the tape thaw at room temperature for about 8 hours, and rinsed with filtered tap water. We shook the tape to remove excess moisture and padded it dry with paper towels. We let the tape dry for 24 hours in a standard office environment. The relative humidity was 15%-20% during the drying process (tested at our facility in Boulder, Colorado).

The Result: 100% Restore
After drying, the tape was loaded into a VXA-2 tape drive, and the original data was restored without error. Proof positive that it's not just a slogan, VXA Packet Tape Technology truly is "Disaster Tested!"

¹ All tests documented with signed affidavits. Copies available on request.

²Using ordinary tap water would not be expected to materially affect the outcome of the test.