An administrator is required to backup 250GB nightly utilizing a single LTO2 tape. The administrator reports that the tape drive is running out of available space before the job completes. Which of…

LTO2 drives support a standardized 2:1 hardware compression ratio, raising effective tape capacity from 200GB native to approximately 400GB compressed, which is sufficient to hold the 250GB backup on a single tape. Enabling compression on the drive is a simple configuration change that requires no additional hardware investment.

LTO is forward-read compatible but not forward-write compatible; an LTO2 drive cannot write to or read LTO3 format tapes, so installing LTO3 media in an existing LTO2 drive is not supported by the LTO specification.

Reducing the data set changes the scope of the backup and leaves data unprotected rather than solving the capacity limitation to meet the requirement of backing up all 250GB.

LTO3 drives provide a native (uncompressed) capacity of 400GB per tape, which directly exceeds the 250GB backup requirement without depending on data compressibility. Replacing the LTO2 drive with an LTO3 drive and using LTO3 media solves the capacity problem and provides headroom for future data growth.

Splitting the backup across two nights uses two separate media sets and nightly jobs, which does not fulfill the stated requirement of completing the full backup on a single tape in a single nightly run.