All tapes getting bad blocks

[kerpow]

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie and glad I have found what looks like a very useful site

I am running BE 7.3 on NT4 and have had no major problems. On Wednesday morning I checked the previous night's backup and it had failed with an NT event of the tapem having a bad block. I assumed the tape was faulty, discarded it, cleaned the drive and thought that would be the end of it. This reoccured wednesday and thursday night. The tapes aren't exactly new, perhaps even a year old but for 3 to go at the same time indicates severe problems.

The tape drive is an HP Surestore 24. Is this likely to be a hardware fault with the drive or is there anything I can troubleshoot on the application side.

Thanks.

 

[2ffat]

It may be possible that your tapes have been subjected to a strong magnetic field. You may have to reformat them. Also, try cleaning your drive 3 or 4 times. Sometimes you get "stubborn stains" that will not come out with just 1 or 2 cleanings. If the cleaning tape is old, it may need to be replaced, too.

Try the cleaning first, then if that doesn't work, format a single tape and test it. If these don't work, post here for some more ideas

James P. Cottingham

I am the Unknown lead by the Unknowing.
I have done so much with so little
for so long that I am now qualified
to do anything with nothing.