After few years, like 5 years to 10 years, you will want to rewrite the data to a new tape. Even LTO tapes will age and go bad after a while. You don't want to be the one who finds out the hard way how long LTO tape actually lasts.
And there is no avoiding reading all the data on the tape when rewriting to another tape. The media is cheap after all. And therefore "discard" is largely pointless, unless it's 90% or more of the data.
And there is no avoiding reading all the data on the tape when rewriting to another tape. The media is cheap after all. And therefore "discard" is largely pointless, unless it's 90% or more of the data.