Legecy Tape Drive - 35480A

[Jim C.]

I have a legacy system that I need to keep alive for a bit longer. I'm having problems with the HP tape drive. I've searched the used part vendors and can not find an exact replacement based on the part number sticker on the drive (35480-00904) but find many other drives starting with "35480-" but ending in various 5 digit combinations. When I check the manuals for the system it refers to the machine being shiped with an HP 35480A tape drive (DDS-DC).

My question is what do the last 5 digits of the part number refer to? Do they denote the firmware or manufacutre date, or are they different drives altoghether?

Thanks!

[Andrew Rutter]

jim,

the last 5 digits are usually revisional. Hp made the dat drives for themselves and many other vendors. so ideally you need one of the drives with a proper HP sticker and firmware. The vendors should be able to verify this.

All the drives would identify themselves as 35480A to the OS. from memory, some of the drives have the C1504-xxxxx part number on them and they to are 35480A drives.

DDS-DC means data compression incase you didnt know.

Andy

[Jim C.]

Andy-

Thanks for your help! If I may, could you please claify something for me? When you say "so ideally you need one of the drives with a proper HP sticker and firmware" are you saying that as long as the drive was not specifically branded for another vendor it should work fine for me?

Thanks,
Jim