Same single spool idea, but a much improved pickup method (avoiding the DLT problem of dropped leaders)

Heh, our original DLT drive got a disconnected leader after a few years of use, and I went back and forth with their tech support a few times before I got one of the more educated drones who recognized it for what it was and said, "OH! Just open the drive with a screwdriver and re-hook the loose leader."

And don't let that scare you off about the reliability of the drives, Rob. From what I understand, the loose leader problem is one of the most common failures of a DLT drive, and ours ran flawlessly for years prior and years after that incident. It was the only incident we had with that drive. In other words, even the most common failure mode has an MTBF measured in years, and is easily fixable in a couple of minutes.