DDS3 Tape Restore Problem

[Jeremy Greene_1]

we have a small network with 18 gb storage. I use a proliant 3000 as a main server running nt server 4, with an sdt-9000 dds 12-24gb dat which backs up every night without fail using novaback for server.

i have a second stand alone server exactly the same only the drive is an hp c1537a which is for disaster recovery...the tape drive has been recalibirated and reflashed (many times)with L111 firmware..it completes the HP LTT test without problem

my approach is to backup every night on my main server and restore to the backup server every day...the trouble is 2 days out of 6 it
will not read the tape..the other 4 days there is not problem whatsoever

Now the problem has become worse....for the last 4 days i have been unable to read the tapes on the backup server

the tape is verifed and can be read on the main machine...but the backup machine will not see the data

i think it maybe a head alignment issue between the 2 dds3 units..

one solution is to replace the c1537e with a new dds3....and if that doesnt solve the problem replace the sdt-9000 with a new unit as well

seems bonkers

any ideas