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Re: 160/320 tape drives

 
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clay bowman
Frequent Advisor

160/320 tape drives

I have a general question, we have a mix of 110/220 tape drives and some 160/320 drives, if one of my sites does a backup with a 160/320 tape to a 160/320 drive could I restore that tape at another site using a 110/220 drive? I'm inclined to believe I could, but I'm not 100% sure and the question was posed to me.
6 REPLIES 6
Leif Halvarsson_2
Honored Contributor

Re: 160/320 tape drives

Hi,
Yes, if the media is in 110/220 format but not if the media is in 160/320 format. To make sure that all medias is in 110/220 format, always initialize all medias in a 110/220 drive.

Of course, this will mean that you loose some media capacity when the media is used in a 160/320 drive.
Mohamed  K Ahmed
Trusted Contributor

Re: 160/320 tape drives

The tapes are backward compatible, so you can read the 110/220 tapes in 160/320 tape drives, but you can't read 160/320 tapes in 110/220 tape drives.

I don't know about what Leif mentioned on how to format the 160/320 tapes to 110/220, I just load the tape and dumps backup to it without formating.

Mohamed
Leif Halvarsson_2
Honored Contributor

Re: 160/320 tape drives

Hi,

Mohamed,
If a new media is loaded in a 110/220 drive and then initialized (or written for the first time) this media is in 110/220 format. If a such media is loaded in a 160/320 drive, the drive will recognize the 110/220 format and continue using this format. If you write something to the media in the 160/320 drive and then load it back to the 110/220 drive, it still can be read.

But, if a new media is initialized in a 160/320 drive, it can't be read in the 110/220 drive.
Mohamed  K Ahmed
Trusted Contributor

Re: 160/320 tape drives

OK, got it...Hope this will help Clay

Mohamed
clay bowman
Frequent Advisor

Re: 160/320 tape drives

Ok, makes sense, just to clarify, in order to restore a 160/320 tape to a 110/220 drive it must be used in a 110/220 drive to "format" first. But once I put the tape in a 160/320 drive and run a backup job, it then is formatted to the 160/320 again and I'm not able to restore using a 110/220 drive. We have intermingled drives at different locations and if I can't restore a tape from one location to another then I have to bring wverything up to 160/320 drives
Leif Halvarsson_2
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: 160/320 tape drives

Hi,
The media only need to be formatted once. When the media format is set to 110/220 also the 160/320 drive will use this format as long as the drive is not "forced" to overwrite the media format to 160/320.

In the SDLT Reference guide you can read about the Density Select tool. With this tool it is possible to change the format for SDLT medias.
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/sdlt160320/documentation.html