Media diagnostic tools?

[RonCaplinger]

Does anyone know if there are any media diagnostic tools we could run against our LTO-3 tapes?  We've had high number of tapes that experience hard read/write errors (status 84 or 85).  Many of these tapes are less than 2 years old.  They were created in different libraries, different drives, at different times, and tapes written before and after them have been just fine.  We are now looking at some way to confirm the media actually is bad.

[J_H_Is_gone]

Does your library have media reports?

My TS3310 has reports i can run on specific media, and it will tell me if it has registered any errors with that media.

[Nicolai]

If you have a Linux media server you can check the read & write error counter page from the tape drive with:

# sg_logs -p=2  /dev/nst0
    HP        Ultrium 3-SCSI    L29S
Write error counter page
  Errors corrected without substantial delay = 52
  Errors corrected with possible delays = 0
  Total operations = 0
  Total errors corrected = 0
  Total times correction algorithm processed = 58
  Total bytes processed = 723
  Total uncorrected errors = 0

 # sg_logs -p=3  /dev/nst0
    HP        Ultrium 3-SCSI    L29S
Read error counter page
  Errors corrected without substantial delay = 5
  Errors corrected with possible delays = 0
  Total operations = 0
  Total errors corrected = 0
  Total times correction algorithm processed = 5
  Total bytes processed = 61
  Total uncorrected errors = 0

The counter pages get reset upon tape unload. Be sure to use a known good tape and drive for reference.

[mph999]

There is one tool that I have previously used and have seen used by other companies, and that is StorSentry.

It is writtemn by a company in France called Hi-Stor ...

http://www.hi-stor.com/site/index.php?pge=62

... and marketed by Imation

http://www.imation.ae/storsentry/index.html

Without going into too much detail,  I've used it, I've seen it used and it does exactly what it says on the tin.
There is a cost, but given there is no need to replace media until StorSentry tells you to there is a saving made on not having to replace your're media every x years.

Typically, for a company that replaces 100% of the media every 3 yeras, the Storsentry product would, if installed, pay itself back after 3 years, and return a saving thereafter.