BE doesn't like new tapes

[LadySlinger]

So I recently ordered about 15 SDLT tapes to last me through the rest of the year.

They're the same kind/brand of tapes that I always order. For some reason BE (v. 10.1d) will quit about halfway through the Full backup process and say there was an error writing to the media.

I thought maybe it was the Tape drive itself so I tested this by placing the media in different slots and re-Inventory.
Still the same thing. Plus the Sunday full back up that we do runs smoothly.

When I Inventory the new tapes, I run a Label Media and Quick Erase.

Oh and one more tidbit, when I inventory the media, the rsults come back as

<Blank Media>

 

[LawnBoy]

Maxell tapes? I recently ran into a couple of bad ones, hope this isn't a trend. Tape drive insisted on a cleaning before it would go back into service.

Aside -- I'm paying about $100/ea for those stinking tapes, what price are you getting them for?

 

[LadySlinger]

I have a bunch of Sonys.

Been getting them for $38/ea.

Hmmm..maybe I'll try cleaning the Tape drive again. This'll be the 3rd time in a week.

 

[LawnBoy]

D'oh! My mistake, I'm running SDLT II. Don't know what I was thinking...

 

[LadySlinger]

Does anyone have other solutions for this?

I can't believe that all 8 tapes that I have tried to use are bad.

Thanks!!!

 

[LawnBoy]

Have you run a cleaning tape through your tape deck lately? I've seen one bad tape clog up the tape heads, rendering the deck useless until cleaned.
Can you reuse one of your old tapes to see if it succeeds?

 

[LadySlinger]

The old tapes are fine.

I have run the cleaning tape in various slots. However, when it comes back to the new tapes, the tape deck just claims that it cannot read/write data to/from the media.

 

[JLLeBoeuf]

Just a thought, if you run an inventory on the tapes, sometimes they fall into the Scratch media field. You will have to move it to the Media set field.

 

[LadySlinger]

I've noticed that and have reassigned them to their correct media sets.

I went back to Dell and downloaded the latest firmware from there, but that didn't help. I downloaded the device driver from Symantec, but still nothing.

I placed the Cleaning Tape in ALL slots and cleaned.

I upped the buffer size to be twice the block size

It just seems weird that I'm on my 4th set of tapes (need 2 for a full backup) and all 8 do not back up. If I reuse old tapes the backup works fine.

 

[LawnBoy]

To quote Sherlock Holmes:
"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Old tapes work + new tapes don't = new tapes bad (possibly mis-labeled at the factory).

 

[k3n85]

I just happened to stumble on your thread and must say I've been having a similar problem, but all seem to 'Report a Hardware Error' @ 1 min 35 sec ...

Full Story:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1310791&page=1

but had reinstalled drivers, cleaned the writer and almost ready to call HP and see what their deal is ... new ideas/solutions?

 

[LadySlinger]

OK, so I opened up the other package of tapes that I had. Just to see...and they worked! So I have 8 disks that I have to call for warranty on. Woo-hoo!