There are many more options and capabilities to tar, so see Chapter 22 for more information. If you already own one of these products, watch for a specific kernel driver for it. If you are planning to purchase a tape drive, check for Linux drivers first. When you have a tape drive, you can be conscientious about making tape backups, and thus protecting your files and data. Losing an important file is very annoying, especially when a few minutes of your time could have saved the information for you.
Tape drives are one of the easiest and inexpensive methods of making reliable backups.