Tape rotation is an essential part of backing up to tape and creating an effective data backup strategy. Here’s a look at the most common backup tape rotation schemes and the pros and cons of each. An effective data backup system using tape requires more than one tape set. A tape set is the number of tapes needed to do the appropriate backup. If a full backup takes two tapes, then two tapes constitute a tape set. If you do incremental backups on weekdays that only take one tape per backup, then your tape set for those days is one tape.