Ultrium 215: newly bought tapes give write error old ones not

[Yvo Nelemans]

I recently bought new tapes for my Ultrium 215.
All the new tapes I used so far give me write errors.
The old tapes which I have work without a problem. I've updated the firmware to the latest version. What could this problem be?

[Shaikh Imran]

Hi,

Have you bought the same compatible tapes ?

Some Ultrium Tape Model Numbers.

http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/products/storagemedia/tape_ultrium/index.html

Firmware updates should not give problems to the same ( model ) of the tapes..

It maybe that new tape or tape lot is faulty or the lock (read / write) of the tape have internal problems.

You can only try this tapes on other drive if possible.

Thats all i could say.

Regards,

[Dave Dewar · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Some more details on the tapes you are using would be helpful, brand, capacity etc.

Also, if you download LTT and generate a support ticket, zip it up and attach it here, I will be able to see a log of the last tapes you have been using and hopefully ascertain the exact error by tape.

Cheers,

Dave Dewar

[Cheryl Griffin]

Make sure you are using compatible media

HP StorageWorks Ultrium and DLT/SDLT - HP Ultrium Cartridge Compatibility Matrix
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg50082

[Yvo Nelemans]

The "old" tapes are HP C7971A the new ones are also HP C7971A.

I've also used Maxell Ultrium 1 data tapes. They give the same result. Old ones give no problem the new ones give an error.

I've included a support ticket of the tape drive.

[Dave Dewar]

Hi Yvo,

Ok, thanks for the information.

Your drive is suffering from severe write and read performance. Write and read error rates are very poor and this is leading to a large amount of write and read retries and sometimes hard errors. This is occuring on both old and new tapes, its just that you have only seen a hard error in the new tape.
Your drive has its cleaning flag set and so a cleaning tape might help recover the situation. However, there is also the chance it will not. If you still have problems after cleaning I would phone up HP support and see if you can get a warranty replacement.

Cheers,

Dave Dewar

Here is a synopsys of the key things from your support ticket.
tape 0217000959
high usage, old tape? has a lot of recent recoverable write errors, I would retire this tape
tape 1110108553
high usage, old tape? has a lot of recent recoverable write errors, I would retire this tape
tape 1040044624
low usage, new tape? has lots of write errors
tape 1160178255
very low usage, new tape? 1 unrecoverable write and read error logged
cleaning light is on
drive is within 3 year warranty accroding to manufacturing date. Drive has seen significant use.
very poor error rate performance on writing reading, evidence of media debris in tape path.