Tape at hardware path : Not Data Grade

[Shermaine Yvonne Tan]

Is this a geuine hardware error as in related to tape or tape drive. Please advise if you have an idea of the following error! How to make or determine a tape is data-grade.

Description of Error:
The drive has not been able to read the MRS stripes.

Probable Cause:

The tape cartridge is not data-grade. Any data you back up to the tape is at risk. Replace the cartridge with a data-grade tape.

[Shaikh Imran]

Hi,
The first thing is very clear that the error is related to the tape only.
Possible causes:
1) The Media (Tape) inserted is a cleaning media
2) OR the media does not have the proper
header i.e. it can be either a Audio grade OR a video grade.
OR
3) The media may be of data grade but a bad media which is not properly factory initialised to be used as a data media (tape).

Regards,

[Marino Meloni_1 · Accepted solution]

MRS stay for Media Recognition System, and this is the system used on DDS tape to identify a Data Tape Vs a Audio Tape.
the cartridge have several hole on the shell that the drive will recognize with some microswitchs.

So the problem may be related to the tape, which is an audio tape, without the MRS, or you may have some problem with these microswitchs.

marino