Critical tape age or number of write operations

[Wolfgang_Beyer]

Has anybody an idea of a critical age for DLT tapes or a critical number of write operations, after which tape errors become a problem? We have about 50 tapes of HP, Sony and Fuji which are 2 to 4 years old and have been overwritten between 50 and 200 times and we observe an increasing number of CRC-errors especially for the Sony and Fuji tapes. Is this already a critical limit? Should we use a tape after a single CRC-error again?

Thanks for any hint!

[Jeff_Dahlin]

For our DLT tapes we started having problems recovering data after about 1.5 to 2 years, with about 100 writes per tape. I started replacing tapes after 2 years max. If you are getting CRC errors that means the data that you have written is probably not recoverable. Best practice would suggest replacing the tape after the first CRC error. I personally would replace it after the second or 3rd CRC error. This would indicate there is a serious problem with the tape, and not just a random error.

[Sharvari_Deshmu]

Hello,

please update us whether the above mentioned solution has helped you also please check the following technote for more information on CRC errors:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/192216


Additional Information :
For information on the recent VERITAS Backup Exec security vulnerabilities, including links to the downloads for the necessary hotfixes, please refer to the following document:
Patch summary for Security Advisories VX05-001, VX05-002, VX05-003, VX05-005, VX05-006, VX05-007

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/277429.htm



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Thanks.