Does HP really support the LTO/Ultrium standard?

[PKeller]

We have been having trouble recently with our tape backups: it is a Quantum SuperLoader3, but we have always used HP LTO-3 Ultrium tapes. The first two tapes in a newly bought batch have failed on their first use. Under a service contract that we have with Quantum, they replaced the drive after the first failure because it was responding to some SCSI commands with sense errors. The replacement drive then gave a WriteFailure after writing about 70Gb of data to the second new tape. I then initiated a flush of the remaining data in the backup cycle to a tape in the library that has been used successfully before: as I write this has been running without errors for several hours. Not surprisingly, Quantum have suggested that the problems that we are experiencing is at least partly to do with the tape media.

I have just had a conversation with someone in HP's technical division, who told me that HP do not support the use of their tapes in non-HP drives. I am astonished by this: I understood that LTO/Ultrium was an industry-wide standard with a cross-vendor certification process. Not only does this stated position contradict practically every statement on the Ultrium "about" page, it also makes a mockery of the very first sentence on the inside of each and every LTO-3 box that HP sell, which reads "This cartridge is designed to provide trouble-free performance on any device bearing the Ultrium 3 logo". Hah!

Come on HP: if you are serious about responding to the needs of business, you are going to have to do better than this!

[thomasr]

That statement sounds quite odd.

I've gotten in touch with a member of the HP Media team, who requests that you contact him directly

at hpmediareturns@hp.com .