Producer of HP LTO-4 tapes?

[RalfG]

We have problems with tapes from one of the LTO-4 tape OEMs. I'd like to test a different brand, but I'm not sure if HP produces their tapes or if they are only HP labled. I just want to be sure to get different tapes than we now use.

Can anyone tell me if HP produces the tapes, or if they are just relabeld?

[Curtis Ballard]

HP has tapes made to our specifications. They are going to be made by one of just a few licensed media manufacturers. All HP labeled media has to meet strict quality criteria.

[Richard Bickers]

Some of the 'HP unique' features are described here: http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11529_div/11529_div.html#Product%20Highlights.

HP drives should work with all LTO format media (the format itself is very strict) but with the extra specs and testing done on the media HP brands, the operating margins should be even higher.

[RalfG]

We had (still have) problems with tapes from one particular vendor. First it looked like only tapes from one production date are affected, but this seems not to be true any more.

That's the reason I want to know which vendor produces the HP tapes, I know there are only 3 or 4 of them.

[Curtis Ballard]

I can't say which media suppliers make HP tape. I don't even know for certain who that is right now and don't pay much attention as I know that media labeled HP is high quality media. I do worry about private labeled media when I analyze field issues.

What I can say is that there is tolerance in the media specs and HP won't brand media that varies in a way that would cause higher than desired error rates in HP drives. If we ever find a problem with media it is addressed quickly as media quality is a very high priority for HP. We stand by the quality of HP branded media.

[Louis Henninger_1]

F.Y.I.

On a side note: Any media that doesn't meet HP specs, can still be sold as LTO-4 certified media by the vendor under their brand label (at a cheaper price) In this case, you do get what you pay for....

Just my two cents,

Louis