DLT 80 Drive Fails After Being Used Successfully for Approx. 1 Month

[Cassie_3]

I have a Netware 5.0 server with this HP Surestore DLT 80 tape backup drive. The drive worked perfectly for approx. 1 year, and then it started failing sporadically and indicating that it needed to be cleaned constantly (it didn't matter if the tape was one that I knew was good or if it was a brand new tape). I called HP, and they sent me a replacement drive. The replacement drive ran perfectly for approximately one month, and then it started with the exact same problems. I called HP, and again, they sent me a replacement drive. This second replacement drive has been working perfectly for approximately one month, and now it is doing the same thing again.

Has anyone experienced this problem? It doesn't seem to be a specific tape that starts causing the problems because it started happening on Fridays and I have been using the same tape on Fridays for the whole month.

[harry d brown jr]

Cassie,

How often do you use a cleaning tape?

Also, could you be experiencing power issues, like spikes that could be frying your tape drive(s)?

live free or die
harry

[Cassie_3]

I only clean the drive when it prompts me to.

Our whole computer room is on a UPS system, so we are protected from power spikes.

Do you think it is possible that the SCSI card has problems? I have a spare that I could try, but I just don't know if this is something that a SCSI card could be responsible for.

[David Ruska]

If you could attach the drive (temporarily) to a Windows system, you could run HP Library & Tape Tools (www.hp.com/support/tapetools), and generate a support ticket. The device logs would show us the specific errors causing the cleaning lights.

Your cleaning method is fine - you should clean only when the drive requests it. One possibility is that your cleaning tape picked up some contamination, so it might be doing more damage then good when you use it. You might want to try a new cleaning tape. (Also, the cleaning tapes are only good for 20 uses).

If possible, you might want to experiment using only new tapes for backups for a while. If that works fine, then try rotating in some of your old tapes. If the cleaning light starts coming on, it could be an issue with your tapes.

[Basheer_1]

I am also experiencing the exact problem. I have this windows system with Surestore vs80. when I purchased it, it was faulty. From the beginning it gave me headache. I called HP and they told to send back, after two weeks I got a brand new(?) piece of the drive. Worked fine for 2 months. after two months it again went wrong. Called again HP People. as usual I got another piece of Drive as replacement. it is now 1 week. and some of my old Tapes do not work. I dont know whats the problem. I am using best SCSI card also.

rgds

[David Ruska]

A DLT 80 drive should not fail in one month or two(even if you used it 24 hours a day).

Can you run Library & Tape Tools, click on the support tool, and then save the support ticket to a file?

Then either attach the support ticket to this thread, or email it to ltt_team@hp.com, and we should be able to indentify why the drive was having errors.

[Basheer_1]

Hello David,

Thanks for your response. Please find the attached Support ticket.
Wish to hear from you soon.

rgds

[David Ruska]

Thanks for posting the support ticket. Just for clarification, this is a Benchmark VS80 drive, not a Quantum DLT 80 drive, which I believe was the original poster's device (You did say vs80 in your message, but I had missed it). For others, the VS80 drive is a half-high version of the Benchmark DLT1 drive.

We will review the support ticket, and let you know what we find.

[Richard Seepaul]

Hello Cassie:
I am experiencing a similar problem with the DLT 80i in an LH3000R Netserver after approximately 1 year of no issues service.
We do not have the problem with DLT 40 Drives in the same model servers with all the same hardware and OS versions etc.
We are running NW 5.1 SP4 with ARCSERVE 7 patched.
The tape drive is attached to its own 2940UW controller.
The drive has suddenly started asking to be cleaned ( blinking cleaning light ) BUT only when a NEW tape is inserted on Friday Nights for the "offsite" backup.
The other nights of the week when the normal two week cycle tapes are used it never asks to be cleaned.
If a NEW tape is used for the backup on any night it also prompts to be cleaned.
We have tried different batches of "new" tapes and different "new" cleaning tapes.
If you find a solution I would be interested.

[David Ruska]

Richard,

I replied to your question in your new thread:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x0d10543254bfd611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

If you're running Windows (not netware), the you can install HP L&TT (www.hp.com/support/tapetools).

With L&TT, you can view the support ticket for the drive, to find information such as power-on hours, tape motion hours, and the partcular errors in the drive error log. The Quantum drive generates error codes like (A401, A402, etc) related to the problems it encounters. You could generate an HTML report of the support ticket, post it to the forum, and then I could interpret it.