Utrium 230i - Failing to Format tapes or update Firmware

[Clive Butlin]

I have a LC2000 Netserver with and Utrium 230i (Firmware E0AD) connected on its own to the B Channel of the on board SCSI controller. Tapeware v6.3SP1a is used for the backup software and RSM has been disabled. This has worked fine for almost a year with scheduled backups.

I recently tried to format more than one "New" Cartridge from different batches and the Tapeware software reports that the tapes are bad. LTT says a simular thing. The exact error in Tapeware is:

Error Number 529 ??? Media data error detected

Description: Device has detected a media error. This may be caused by bad or worn media, device in
need of cleaning, hardware problems and sometimes by attempting to use compressed format media in a
device that does not support compression. Try head cleaning, different media/device or bulk erasure of
media (Only if media/device does not use pre-recorded Servo tracks).

This of course generates a Tape Error light on the drive which can be cleared by ejecting the tape and put the same or another tape back in.

I have tried to update the firmware to E22D but the LTT software does not see the file although it is in the firmware directory. I have also used the cleaning tape.

I failed to see how I could be so unlucky especially as other tapes from a same batch are ok in another drive that I have in the same configuration. Albeit a later model with Firmware E22D.

The Utrium drive has now disappeared from the device manager which I know can be cured by a shutdown and restart but then we back into the vicious circle again with trying to format tapes.

Anybody got any ideas?

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

What OS are you running?

Vince

[Clive Butlin]

Window 2000 Server.

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

Did you try cleaning the drive? The drive may be faulty. Call HP support to take a look at it.

HTH,
Vince

[Clive Butlin]

Vince,

I tried cleaning the drive before the device disappeared and still had no luck with it.

Regards

Clive

[Jan Klier · Accepted solution]

Regarding your LTT failure, which version of LTT are you running?

There had been a change in the header of the firmware file which makes more recent files (such as E22D) invisible to older versions of LTT [of the top of my head I want to say the change was in LTT 2.7 SR2 - but no guarantess]. LTT version 2.9 was just released this week, and that should work fine.

[Clive Butlin]

Jan,

Sorry to take so long to reply. I am using v2.5 of LTT. In anticipation that you will suggest that I undate to v2.9 I have done so. Unfortunately I am unable to reboot the server at this time and will not be able to do so until next week. As I mentioned in the original post I will need to get the device back online. I will let you know the outcome next week.

Regards

Clive Butlin

[Clive Butlin]

I have now been sucessful in updating the firmware. But I still have the problem with being able to format tapes in tapeware or perform the Read/Write test in LTT. BTW I also had to upgrade the device driver to the the latest version on the HP Support site.

To expand on the LTT side of the problem. The software ejects the tape and then asks for a cleaning tape which I have done in the past with these symptoms prior to firmware upgrade. After all this I am still unable to format tapes.

I have generated a sticket.ltt if theres any interested party.

Best regards


Clive Butlin

[David Ruska]

> I have generated a sticket.ltt if theres any interested party.

If you could mail it to ltt_team@hp.com, I'll see if one of the product engineers can look at it.