Parity error

[Swain]

I am getting parity erropr while taking backup of Open VMS8.2 system
$ INITIALIZE/MEDIA_FORMAT=COMPACT LEV$MKA600: BAK
%INIT-F-PARITY, parity error

could someone help?
the drive is DDS2

[Steven Schweda]

"xxx-F-PARITY, parity error" is normally a
generic I/O error. Could be a bad tape, or
a drive which is bad or needs cleaning.

show error

[Swain]

had to cleanup disk

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Cleanup disk ???? For a parity error on a tape drive ???

Wim