I have a variety of DDS-2, DDS-4, and one DDS-5 tape drives, with a shelf full of tape cartridges, exhibiting the following symptom since a few months ago (I haven't had time to deal with it lately, and, yes, I haven't run a backup in months...):
The DDS-2 drives still work fine. They work fine on any of several controllers I've tried (AttoTech UL2 series, a couple of different Adaptec models). They work under NTBACKUP and under Legato Networker.
The DDS-4 drives and the DDS-5 drive, however, don't write. They don't write with any controller, and they don't write with any backup software, and they don't write any DDS-4 or DDS-5 cartridge, and they don't write whether they are internally mounted inside a server chassis or attached to an external SCSI bus in an external storage box, and they don't write when attached to either of the two quite different servers where I have tested all of this. The failure mode, when attempting to label a tape with Legato Networker, is a CRC error. With NTBACKUP of course it just says that it failed. The System EventLog shows a bad block error followed by an I/O error ... but I simply can't have three bad tape drives and dozens of bad tape cartridges. All of this is on Windows Server 2003, by the way, definitely happening with the R2 release, and I'm pretty sure I remember it starting before the R2 release came out.
Oh, did I mention, the same DDS-4 drives and dozens of cartridges worked perfectly for more than a year before all of them began failing the same way some time around the early part of 2007?
And, if the failure had been a bright line, it would obviously have been some kind of software change... but it wasn't a bright line. For a couple of months, the drives began showing unreliability, then simply wouldn't work anymore (the symptoms above). I assumed that something had worn out or damaged them, so I bought a new DDS-5 drive and a set of new DDS-5 tapes... and the exact same problem immediately occurred with them, too.
No, I do not live next to a nuclear power station... nor (as far as I know) on haunted or hallowed ground!
Oh, reading seems to work okay. I inserted a DDS-4 cartridge I had created during a routine Networker backup a year or more ago in to the DDS-5 drive, and had no problem running a Networker 'scanner' command to review the contents of that backup tape. As I have never successfully written a DDS-5 tape, I can't try reading one of those at the moment.
The DDS-4 drives have been a variety of Seagate or Certance labeled STD2401LW drives (with various makers' stickers, e.g. IBM added) - I had both DDS-4 drives replaced under warranty with other DDS-4 units, all of them based on the STD2401LW.
The DDS-5 drive is a Certance CD72LWH (with a Dell sticker added).
The drivers under which I have tested and encountered the problems above include the one released for Windows Update titled Quantum Corp 4/26/2007 v1.14.8.0, and the one which (I think) came by default with Windows Server 2003 v1.14.3.0 dated 8/1/2006.
Suggestions, please? I would really like to get back to running my backups..
Thanks!
-Jay
Atlanta, GA, US
The DDS-2 drives still work fine. They work fine on any of several controllers I've tried (AttoTech UL2 series, a couple of different Adaptec models). They work under NTBACKUP and under Legato Networker.
The DDS-4 drives and the DDS-5 drive, however, don't write. They don't write with any controller, and they don't write with any backup software, and they don't write any DDS-4 or DDS-5 cartridge, and they don't write whether they are internally mounted inside a server chassis or attached to an external SCSI bus in an external storage box, and they don't write when attached to either of the two quite different servers where I have tested all of this. The failure mode, when attempting to label a tape with Legato Networker, is a CRC error. With NTBACKUP of course it just says that it failed. The System EventLog shows a bad block error followed by an I/O error ... but I simply can't have three bad tape drives and dozens of bad tape cartridges. All of this is on Windows Server 2003, by the way, definitely happening with the R2 release, and I'm pretty sure I remember it starting before the R2 release came out.
Oh, did I mention, the same DDS-4 drives and dozens of cartridges worked perfectly for more than a year before all of them began failing the same way some time around the early part of 2007?
And, if the failure had been a bright line, it would obviously have been some kind of software change... but it wasn't a bright line. For a couple of months, the drives began showing unreliability, then simply wouldn't work anymore (the symptoms above). I assumed that something had worn out or damaged them, so I bought a new DDS-5 drive and a set of new DDS-5 tapes... and the exact same problem immediately occurred with them, too.
No, I do not live next to a nuclear power station... nor (as far as I know) on haunted or hallowed ground!
Oh, reading seems to work okay. I inserted a DDS-4 cartridge I had created during a routine Networker backup a year or more ago in to the DDS-5 drive, and had no problem running a Networker 'scanner' command to review the contents of that backup tape. As I have never successfully written a DDS-5 tape, I can't try reading one of those at the moment.
The DDS-4 drives have been a variety of Seagate or Certance labeled STD2401LW drives (with various makers' stickers, e.g. IBM added) - I had both DDS-4 drives replaced under warranty with other DDS-4 units, all of them based on the STD2401LW.
The DDS-5 drive is a Certance CD72LWH (with a Dell sticker added).
The drivers under which I have tested and encountered the problems above include the one released for Windows Update titled Quantum Corp 4/26/2007 v1.14.8.0, and the one which (I think) came by default with Windows Server 2003 v1.14.3.0 dated 8/1/2006.
Suggestions, please? I would really like to get back to running my backups..
Thanks!
-Jay
Atlanta, GA, US
