Hard write errors on HP Ultrium 3-SCSI LTO Tape Drive

[Mike Vietorisz]

A while ago, we installed a tape library (MSL6000) along with an Ultrium 3-SCSI LTO tape drive. Ever since then, we've had numerous cases of random I/O write errors during our backup jobs. At first we were using Backup Exec 12.5 but recently upgraded to BExec 2010, but still get the errors.

In BExec, under the tape drive device, the count of hard-write errors is at 59.

The errors seem entirely random. The drive will work without issue for a few weeks... and then out of the blue it will dish out an I/O error every full backup job.

We clean the drive every Friday... which should be more than sufficient. I set it up to clean twice a week, but didn't notice any improvement. We replaced about half of our tapes with new ones. I've upgraded the firmware on the tape drive itself, and I also ran a few tests using LT&T, all of which passed with flying colors. I really have no idea what the problem is!

Could it just be a faulty tape drive? Wouldn't the LT&T tests have picked up something...?

Any further ideas/help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

- Mike

[Curtis Ballard]

Cleaning once a week is significantly more cleaning that should be done and can cause excessive head wear.

To get any idea what may be going on we would need to have an L&TT support ticket: http://www.hp.com/support/tapetools

[Cagy]

Pls!! I'm having the same problem. Managed to solve? luiz@cagy.com.br! Tks

[ChrisWhitehead]

Is it still failing on these new tapes or just on the older ones?

As a rule i usually suspect media first, but once you find it failing on brand new tapes it is then time to get the drive looked at for a service / repair.

I also agree with the other poster in that you are using the cleaning tape too often.  These are more abrasive than ordinary data tapes and should only be used when the drive requests one.  If this is more than about once a month in normal operation then i would keep a close eye on the drive.

Try running ltt on the drive on a new tape and see what it does - it is the best guide but it is not fool proof one way or the other