Hard Write Errors On New Tape

[JasAld]

We have about 20 tapes that have Hard Write Errors and it seems everytime a backup job tries to write to these tapes it logs a CRC error and stops the job.  SO, we purchased 20 brand new tapes to replace the ones with Hard Write Errors, and to my surprise the first new tape it wrote to was issued two Hard Write Errors.  The  job logged a CRC error and stopped incomplete.

The tape drive is a Certance (company bought by Quantum) 8 bay autoloader using Quantum Ultrium tapes (200GB native /400GB compressed).  The drive was cleaned a week ago.

Help before I go postal!

Message Edited by JasAld on 05-21-200710:18 AM

[Ken_Putnam]

have you tried running the Quantum diagnostics against the drive?

The drive itself may be going bad

[Brian_Yurick]

Don't forget to check your event log for events 7-15. I believe these usually indicate hardware failure.

[JasAld]

I've got tons of 7s:
The device, \Device\Tape0, has a bad block.

And a bunch of 11s in a row:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Tape0.

And a few 15s from long ago:
The device, \Device\Tape0, is not ready for access yet.

[JasAld]

Now all 3 NEW tapes in this batch show 2 Hard Write Errors.

Can someone confirm I am introducing new tapes to Backup Exec properly:

Insert tape

inventory tape

label tape

quick erase tape

now ready for backups

Thanks.

[Ken_Putnam]

Shouldn't need to quick erase the tape  (label is basically the same thing), but other than that, looks good.

Have you tried the manufacturer's diagnostics against the drive?

[JasAld]

Ran manuf's Tape Rx 4.6 several times [on tape "Daily5-7"]:

1) 200MB write/read test: successful

2) 5GB write/read test: successful

3) 25GB write/read test: successful

4) 500MB compression test: "unable to begin the test.  Device compression is turned off."

5) Electronics Test: pass

6) Retrieve Trace Buffer: gathering trace data from the drive....(waited for 15 minutes and stopped it).
server jammed up.  Had to reboot it.

Are we getting ripped off with bad "new" tapes?  They were cellphane wrapped and appeared to be new. 

OS of the backup server is W2003 Svr. Std, R2, SP2, all patched up with critical updates. 

BE version is 10.1 SP3.  All server agents are at same build.

At a loss here folks.

Message Edited by JasAld on 05-23-200701:27 PM

[Ken_Putnam]

#6 looks like it may be hardware related.  I'd call HP support (or your vendor) on that, adn while you have them on the phone ask if there are known problems with the brand of tape you bought

[JasAld]

I am here to give an update.

Well the brand tape we purchased always matches the manufacturer of the drive, whatever the cost.  The drive is a Quantum (actually Certance) LTO 2 which holds 8 tapes.

At our whitts end with this drive, and it being out of warranty, we just ordered a Quantum Superloader 3 (LTO 3 tapes: 400GB native & 800GB compressed per tape).  It backs up at 245GB/h = 68MB/s = double speed of our faulty LTO2.

http://www.quantum.com/ServiceandSupport/SoftwareandDocumentationDownloads/SuperLoader3/Index.aspx

So $8200 later, and hopefully by Monday when this arrives we will be back in good shape once again.

Thanks Ken & Brian for your help.

Message Edited by JasAld on 06-14-200705:52 AM