HP C1537A DDS-3 DAT 12/24 Not storing more than 12Gb?

[CA1201141]

Hi all,

Firstly when I searched for the product C1537A on HP's site, it couldn't be found!

Anyway, the C1537A DDS-3 DAT drive does exist as I have one installed in my PC!

My understanding is that this drive is a 12/24Gb backup device.

I have attempted to backup just over 12Gb of data using various backup programs (Windows Backup, NovaBackup, Genie-Soft etc etc).

For some reason I'm being asked to insert another DAT tape (I use 125m DDS-3) when 12Gb has been backed up and only 400Mb left to do.

My questions:

1. Is the drive I have 12/24Gb capacity?
2. If so, how can I achieve this using one tape?
3. What backup program would you recommend for use with WindowsXP Pro?

Regards

John

[Lewis Finch]

John, The drive uses hardware compression by default so make sure you don't have compression enabled in the software. Second, if your data is aleady compressed you can't compress it anymore.

[CA1201141]

Thanks very much for the reply.

I do disable software compression in the backup program and my data hasn't been compressed prior to backup.

Mainly it's the contents of My Documents folder plus my Outlook database of 250mb.

Maybe the C1537A is not 12/24Gb?

Thanks again

John

[Lewis Finch]

John, You definitely have a DDS 3 tape drive , I suggest you download the library and tape tools diagnostic to test your drive. You can make sure your firmware is curent and also run a .compression test to see if your drive is compressing properly.

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/ltt/index.html

[CA1201141]

Thanks for the link to the tape tools. I have downloaded and run the diags = all seems okay.

I'll try a largish backup overnight and let you know the outcome.

Many thanks

John

[CA1201141]

Below I've pasted a part of the backup log produced by Novabackup vers. 7.

Backup: End: 30/10/2004 10:42
INFO: Backup: Backup stopped by user (file level)
INFO: Backup: Operation cancelled.

Backup: Total files selected: 11901, Total bytes selected: 8.1GB
Backup: Total files backed up: 9573, Total bytes backed up: 7.3GB

Log: 2 Informational message(s), 0 warning(s), 0 error(s)

Program total time: 07:58:26
End time: 30/10/2004 10:42...

As you can see, the backup program requested a 2nd take to continue the backup after only 7.3GB!!

The tape I had put in the drive was a new Sony 125m - didn't even make the 12Gig!

Any ideas?

Regards

John

[Max_73]

Hi John,

I have exactly the same problem. I have purchased a used tape device (1537A), which seems to be a 1554 tape from HP's perspective.

Anyway: I have the same problem. Did you try to run data compression diagnostics with the LT&T?

I got the result, that compression works fine (2.22 : 1), but that it has been disabled by my backup software (Veritas BackupExec). In Veritas everything seems to be fine, though. Hardware compression is switched on, software compression is switched off.

Did you have success so far?

Regards,
Max

[CA1201141]

Thanks for the reply Max

When I get more time I'll do some more tests and post the results.

I've seen this problem before on other systems where the capacity of the backup device is significantly less than expected.

I recall having a 2.4Gig DAT drive years back and this showed the same problem.

I've just purchased a load of new Sony DAT 125M tapes so will have a bash soon.

Regards

John

[Angie Raheb]

I, too have have the same problem. I have a Compaq DDS3 12/24 DAT tape drive, use 125 mm DDS-3 tapes and use Backup Exec. The data on the disk drive has a little over 12 GB and it is now asking for a second tape.

We have some zip files that we are backing up, which would already be compressed, but only a few. Would this cause any problems?

Backup Exec has hardware compression checked.

Did anyone have any success with this?

Thanks,
Angie

[CA1201141]

Just an update for those interested!

I swapped backup programs today to Genie Backup Professional vers. 5. I also purchased some brand new Sony DDS3 125M DATs.

Same problem I'm afraid!

I created a backup routine and the approx size of data to be backed up was 14Gig.

The backup process started, the DAT was formatted and files writing began. I watched the process and when it reached just over 7Gig a request for a 2nd cartridge appeared!

So what's happened to the claimed 12/24Gig capacity?

Seems I'm not the only one either!

Regards

John

PS I really do appreciate the replies - thanks