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Re: SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

 
Kirk Woodhouse
Occasional Advisor

SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

NTBackup Utility - Error
1) A previously written backup tape is inserted and the set is properly reported. This is the only backup set on the tape.

2)An attempt to catalog the backup set produces the error noted below.

3) "Tape Drive Error Detected" (No further information in the error box).

4) No results or errors reported in NT logs.

5) Ran Tape Tools, latest version (3.4) from the web site with NT Miniport selected.

Test Results:
Connectivity - OK
Self Test - OK
Device Performance -
2:1 (4096MB, 727 secs, 5MB/s),
3:1 (4096MB, 368 secs, 11MB/s)

Configuration:
OS
NT4.0, SP6a
Device Driver - V1.05.01 (Latest on HP Site)
Control Panel->Devices:
4mmdat, status (blank), startup (system)
hpdat, status (started), startup (system)
Control Panel->Tape Devices
Reports
HP C5683A, Tape0
Working Properly

SCSI Adpater -
Tekram DC-390U/W/F/U2NT
Ver 3.51-4.X PCI SCSI
Driver Ver 3.20
SCSI Conflicts - checked, no conflicts

Tape Drive
SureStore Dat40e
Box lists C5687A
Tape Tools reports C5683A
NT reports C5683A
Firmware - C305 (Latest on HP Site)

I think those are all the details.

I have hunted the Web, Microsoft and HP without success.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Kirk
13 REPLIES 13
David Ruska
Honored Contributor

Re: SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

Run L&TT again and generate a support ticket. Look in the device analysis section to see if it notes any causes of the failure.

If not, reproduce the problem again and then run LTT and collect a support while the tape is still loaded. That will preserve all the logs (some are cleared when the tape is unloaded). Post the support ticket here, and one of the DDS experts can give it a look.
The journey IS the reward.
Kirk Woodhouse
Occasional Advisor

Re: SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

David,
Thanks for the feedback.

1) Ran LTT and discoverd prior owners/admins had not been cleaning drive. I performed (5) cleaning cycles. Noted high counts (20K+) on Mechanism Error Counters.

2) Retried the target tape with ntbackup and recieved the same error as yesterday. With the tape still in the drive, I ran LTT and produced the attached service ticket.

Thanks,
Kirk
Kirk Woodhouse
Occasional Advisor

Re: SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

Addition Test Data:
I ran a "Media Analysis Test" to verify the target tape. I discovered an I/O error.

I have attached the Event Log.

Thanks,
Kirk
David Ruska
Honored Contributor

Re: SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

> 1) Ran LTT and discoverd prior owners/admins had not been cleaning drive. I performed (5) cleaning cycles.

Regular cleaning (e.g. once weekly) is critical for DDS drives.

> Noted high counts (20K+) on Mechanism Error Counters.

You can ignore those. You are on the C305 firmware which implements USS complient SCSI logs. This unfortunately changed the definition of log pages LTT was decoding. A future version of LTT will have changes to properly decode the new log definition.

I'll look over the support ticket in more detail. The only thing that stood out right away was the use of primarily DDS3 tapes instead of DDS4.

The drive fault logs are empty.
The journey IS the reward.
David Ruska
Honored Contributor

Re: SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

> I ran a "Media Analysis Test" to verify the target tape. I discovered an I/O error.

Thanks for posting the event log.

The log says 'changing transfer length from 64K to 112K', and then the the next read request reports 'the I/O request was rejected by the OS'.

I believe there's a limit of 64K for transfer rate size in Windows. That may be your problem - the tape may be written with a block size (or variable block size) that is too big to be read on Windows.
The journey IS the reward.
Kirk Woodhouse
Occasional Advisor

Re: SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

Block size does not seem to make sense. The tape was written with this computer(OS) and tape drive.

The tapes are hp dds-3 tapes, P/N C5708A. They appear to come pre-formated.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Kirk
David Ruska
Honored Contributor

Re: SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

> Block size does not seem to make sense. The tape was written with this computer(OS) and tape drive.

The tapes were written with NT backup?

> They appear to come pre-formated.

The host (app) still controls the logical formatting of the tape.

> Any thoughts?

I'll have to engage some of the solutions engineers.

The journey IS the reward.
David Ruska
Honored Contributor

Re: SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

Kirk,

One of my solutions colleagues gave me a lead.

Here's something for an adaptec HBA:

---
To enable record sizes above 64Kb in windows you need to add a double word
variable in the registry...

/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/system/current_control_set/services/adpu160m/parameters/device
MAXIMUM_SG_LIST = 0x000000ff

This should allow transfers upto 1Mb
---

Look through the documention for your Tekram HBA and see if it has some configurations for transfer sizes >64K.

Where the tapes written with a different HBA?
The journey IS the reward.
Kirk Woodhouse
Occasional Advisor

Re: SureStore DAT40e - Tape Drive Error Detected

Same hardware through out for the entire time. I am wondering if the following might have occured:
1) A lack of cleaning generated an error.
2) In response, I upgraded the firmware and drivers for the tape drive.
3) Now perhaps there is compatibility issue between the combination of tape drive, SCSI controller and the OS, which happens to report the same generic error.

What do you think?

I will look into the settings on the Tekram, and probably upgrade its firmware and device driver, while I am at it.

Thanks,
Kirk