DLT-8000 I/O Error (AS4100 w/Tru64 Unix 5.1b)

[Horacio Rivero]

Hello,
I am getting I/O error while doing vdump afeter 20 min with any tape and doesn´t finish.
This is the procedure:

# mt -f /dev/ntape/tape2 rewind
# vdump -0CqNUF /dev/ntape/tape2 /bkp/sapdata00

vdump: unable to write to device ; [5] I/O Error
vdump: do you want to retry ? N

#

Please help me to solve this problem.

Thank you
Regards

[Steven Schweda · Accepted solution]

Have you tried cleaning the tape drive, or a
different tape drive?

[Horacio Rivero]

Hello,

not yet, I don not have another tape drive so I will try cleaning.
Is it possible to have problem with controller or cable?.

Regards

[Steven Schweda]

> Is it possible to have problem with
> controller or cable?.

Many things are possible, but if it takes
twenty minutes to get it to fail, I'd expect
the problem to be the tape or dirt.

Running a cleaning tape is also normally
faster and cheaper than replacing other
hardware, so it's a reasonable thing to try
first.

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

I'd also expect a clean of the drive to sort things out.

Remember however that cleaning tapes have a limited life of 20 cycles, and from experience many operators don't mark the tape when it's been used. If the problem persists after cleaning, make sure you're using a good/new cleaning tape...

Cheers,

Rob

[Mark...]

Hi,

Agree with above, clean it [valid cleaning tape] and try NEW media.

My Unix is a bit rusty but I do remember that there used to be a "tapex" cmd available for tape testing.
Tru64 "SCU" cmds can sometimes be useful. There is one for verify media but I think that is just for disks - as I said rusty Unix but man should sort you out.

Mark...

[Horacio Rivero]

Dear friends,

I believe cleaning solved the I/O error problem. Also in some cases the tape drive did not respond to Tru64 commands even with ">>>show dev" it was not seen, so I cleaned SCSI cable connectors (external and internal) and I believe this did function. The tape drive will be in testing process and I will be giving feedback about this.

Thank you very much for your help.

Regards.

[Rob Leadbeater]

Cool. Remember to assign points if people have helped you out...

Cheers,

Rob