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Re: Cannot read/write DDS-2 tapes on a C1537A

 
Thomas Thyberg
New Member

Cannot read/write DDS-2 tapes on a C1537A

Hi,

I just recently bought an used HP SureStore 24DAT at an auction
but it seems it cannot read or write DDS-2 tapes. DDS-1 and
DDS-3 seems to work fine.

When trying to access the tape using the command "tar tvf /dev/st0"
it reponds with:
tar: /dev/st0: Cannot read: Input/output error
tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

And that is after trying for some time (~ 1 min) and also
after doing some internal cleaning.

I also get the following in /var/log/messages

Dec 16 19:02:15 mother kernel: st0: Error with sense data: Info fld=0x2800, Current st09:00: sense key Medium Error
Dec 16 19:02:15 mother kernel: Additional sense indicates Track following error

The drive to seem to recognize all three types of DDS-tapes.
mtst status reports the following for the different tapes:

SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=0, block number=0, partition=0.
Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x25 (DDS-3).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (41010000):
BOT ONLINE IM_REP_EN

SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=0, block number=0, partition=0.
Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x24 (DDS-2).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (41010000):
BOT ONLINE IM_REP_EN

SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=0, block number=0, partition=0.
Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x13 (DDS (61000 bpi)).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (41010000):
BOT ONLINE IM_REP_EN

I've also tried setting different blocksizes like
10240, 20480 and other but nothing seems to work.

Anyone got an idea what could be wrong with this unit?
4 REPLIES 4
Michael Schulte zur Sur
Honored Contributor

Re: Cannot read/write DDS-2 tapes on a C1537A

Hi,

have you tried the dds-2 tape in another drive to exclude the possibility of a bad tape?

greetings,

Michael
Nguyen Anh Tien
Honored Contributor

Re: Cannot read/write DDS-2 tapes on a C1537A

DDS2 is compatible with HP SureStore 24DAT
You refer this link for evidence.


http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11883_div/11883_div.html#Technical%20Specifications


Regards
tienna
HP is simple
Thomas Thyberg
New Member

Re: Cannot read/write DDS-2 tapes on a C1537A

: Hi,
:
: have you tried the dds-2 tape in another drive to exclude the
: possibility of a bad tape?

I just grabbed two DDS-2 tapes from my collection and neither worked.
Then I tried them in my old DDS-2 drive and neither worked there
either...

After that I tried several DDS-2 tapes in my old drive and found a few
more tapes that I could not read, but I also got several working ones.
But, none of those tapes worked in my second hand SureStore DAT24 drive.
All DDS-1 works both reading and writing and so do the two new DDS-3 I
bought to test the new drive. Well, at least the drive works OK with
the DDS-3 tapes and I guess I should be happy for that since the drive
only costed med $35 at the auction.

But still I'm curious about *why* and if there is anything one can
do about it?
Joshua Scott
Honored Contributor

Re: Cannot read/write DDS-2 tapes on a C1537A

DDS-2 Drives are infamous for the heads wandering over time. this is most likely your problem with reading the tape. I'm not sure what OS you have (linux?) but in HP-UX a special device file is needed to allow the DDS-3 Drive to write to a DDS-2 tape.

Josh
What are the chances...