Travan T20 "Unrecognizable data"

[Bernard Hoksbergen]

We have 5 servers, all (were)equiped with a Surestore T20i installed (using NT4 Backup utility.)

This has worked fine for 3 years.

Now, in nearly 6 months, all the tape-drives stopped working, all with the same error; "Unrecognizable data"

In the event viewer there is an error stating:
The device, \Device\Tape0, has a bad block.

We have also downloaded the HP TapeAssure utility and run that - it runs the self test and passes, it runs the Connection Test and passes that, but skips the Read/Write Test irrespective of whether there is a tape inserted or not.

In Control Panel/Tape Devices, the system detects the drive OK and knows there is a driver loaded.

The drive is "cleaned".

We had to replace al the drives, with DDS tape drives and everything worked fine again.

There is another message in this forum reporting the same problem.

As in our situation, al the drives (5) stopped working within 6 months, I wondered if these drives have al build-in self-destruction ;-) that triggers in 3 years ?

Anyone with the same experience/problem please reply me.

Thanx,
Bernard