Life Expectancy of Super DLT Tapes

[Jay_Bollyn]

I am wondering how long Fuji Super DLT Tapes last. Under Media Properties Statistics, each of my tapes has been used ~ 40 hours ('Total hours in use').

TIA - Jay

[Amruta_Purandar]

Hello,

Please contact your Hardware manufacturer for these details.

Regards,

[Jay_Bollyn]

Yes, I know I could contact Dell regarding this PE2600, since it is still under extended warranty. This tape drive has been replaced under warranty twice, in the 15 months the server has been in service. Since Dell uses remanufactured devices for warranty replacements, the age and complete history of this tape drive is unknown.

In the last couple weeks, the drive's clean light has come on several times, so I ran the cleaning tape each time. I do think this problem is being caused by the tape drive, and not old, worn-out tapes. So that led me to the question of how many hours-use one can expect from a tape.

Doesn't anyone have an opinion on this?

- Jay

[Ken_Putnam]

Tape life is generally measured in number of passes rather than hours/days/months of life, since repeated passes over the Read/Write heads is more likely to cause tape failure that just sitting on a shelf

You should be able to find a "shelf life" in the support information from the tape Manufacturer, if anywhere.

[Jay_Bollyn]

Thanks Ken,

The link below shows the stats of one of my tapes:

http://www.neiu.edu/~jbollyn/servers/be.jpg

This tape has 11 hard write errors. Is this a concern? One of the other tapes has 7 hard write errors. The other tapes don't have any.

Also, is the number of soft-read-errors and soft-write-errors out of line, or is this to be expected?

- Jay

[Jay_Bollyn]

I have found the following quote on the website http://www.dlttape.com :

"Don't put your data in danger: Always buy new media, and retire what's old.

Your overall backup strategy should include plans to retire media periodically, based on length of time in service, number of uses, or read/write error rates."

[priya_khire]

Hello Jay,

We wish to know if your question/s is/are answered. It seems Mr.Putnam's replies did help you.

However note that the forum contains Backup Exec related queries only.

Do revert in case you need more information on Backup exec and related issues.

Note : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked ‘assumed answered’ and would be moved to ‘answered questions’ pool.

Regards.

[Jay_Bollyn]

Hello Priya,

Thanks for your reply. I am new to tape backup, so I am grateful for this forum.

Regarding your first point, IMHO my question has not been fully answered yet. Ken's reply was indeed helpful. However, I am still trying to decide if I should pre-emptively remove tapes from my rotation. I would rather not wait for the tape to be unusable, as determined by BE.

Regarding your other point, I feel my question is definitely BE-related. In other words, I am wondering if I should let BE automatically determine that a given tape should be retired. Or alternatively, should I manually move a tape to Retired Media, based on 'length of time in service, number of uses, or read/write error rates', as suggested by dlttape.com (above). I have found estimates of how long tape drive heads should last, but I have not found any estimates regarding estimated tape life.

I really thought my question would generate more replies, because it seems like such a basic concept.

- Jay

[Amruta_Bhide]

Hello Jay,

We apologise for this late reply.

We would suggest you to get in touch with your Hardware manufacturer to check the life of the tape.
******************************************************************
*****************************************************************

Note : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked ‘assumed answered’ and would be moved to ‘answered questions’ pool.


Thanks.