L&TT doesn't find Internal DLT VS80

[Stephen Spear]

L&TT ver 4.0 SR2 is not identifying my internal Surestore DLT VS80 (bought January 2002) in blue so I can't run tests etc. The attached .bmp shows what it displays. Do I need to update the firmware for the software to identify the drive in blue? Do I have to create a FUP tape to update the firmware?

Original Problem:
Tapeware ver 7.00 SP7D (492.12899) has been occasionally bombing out indicating there may a hardware fault after years of the drive running faultlessly.

Thanks for the help.

[Russell C. Smith · Accepted solution]

Hi Stephen,

It sounds to me as though you have two problems: 1) Getting HP L&TT to recognise your DLT VS80, 2) Tapeware drive error.

Starting with the first...based on the image you provided, the Comment indicates that you were scanning for hardware using the default NT Miniport driver option. I'm going to assume that you installed L&TT using the default options in which case you haven't installed the Optional ASPI support. My recommendation here is that you uninstall HP L&TT (using the HP L&TT Install Support Setup Utility) available at:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=406731&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=406729&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1093

and re-install L&TT with the ASPI support option selected (see attached image). Note that you may have to reboot your system. If you already installed ASPI support then you don't have to re-install, just go on to the next step.
Now start L&TT again and check 'ASPI' instead of 'NT Miniport' under the 'I/O Mode' section of the L&TT Startup screen. Hopefully L&TT should be able to access your drive now.

Second, your Tapeware error. Firstly, the "indication that there may be a hardware fault"...exactly what is the indication. How is it being indicated? Is Tapeware "bombing out" before, during, after a backup session? Is a Tapeware error code and message provided? Do you have, or can you get, a screenshot of the error? Can you think of when this error started happening and if you made any system changes around that time? What system hardware, OS version and Service pack level are you running? Also, once you get L&TT working with the drive could you confirm the drive firmware revision?

Hope this helps.
Russell

[Stephen Spear]

Hi Russell

Thanks for getting back to me.
1. HP L&TT
I had originally used the default NT miniport driver option.

I have now downloaded the HP software you indicated and uninstalled HP L&TT with the msg indicating that it was successful. I have then tried to re-install HP L&TT but am getting the error msg:
"A previous install or uninstall operation was not successful and left the system in an inconsistant state. The Install wizard will attempt to clean up and then you may attempt a clean install..." The attached .bmp file shows the second screen.

I am just going round in circles because the uninstall seems to works and then the re-install doesn't. I have tried it several times and am getting the same each time. Re-starting my computer makes no difference.

I have Win XP Pro SP2 (fully patched).

2. Tapeware
Tapeware seems to be working fine at the moment. I've now run 3 full backups without any probs. It was bombing out after quite a few hours with "Error 517: Hardware failure". I've got a printout of the error screen. I'll look into that after after making progress with the HP L&TT prob.

Thanks once again for your help. It is appreciated.

Steve

[Russell C. Smith]

Hi Stephen,

Looks like we've discovered a slight issue with the HP L&TT support utility however, not to worry, there's an easy solution. Go into the 'Control Panel', select 'Add or Remove Programs', when the list of installed application appears for the default 'Change or Remove Programs' screen scroll to 'HP StorageWorks Library and Tape Tool'. You should see two entries there. Select the one with the proper HP L&TT icon (as shown in the image I've attached), click the 'Change/Remove' button and then follow the prompts to confirm and remove L&TT. Once this is finished you should be able to install L&TT again with no problems.

Regarding the Tapeware error, I'll see what I can find about that issue.

Let me know how it goes.
Russell

[Stephen Spear]

Hi again Russell :-)

Your responses have been very helpful - thank you!

1. HP L&TT
I used 'Add or Remove Programs' to uninstall HP L&TT and then re-installed it with the optional ASPI support.

HP L&TT found my DLT VS80 using ASPI mode without any problems and immediately suggested updating the firmware which I did successfully. I then ran a test and the drive passed it without any problems.


2. Tapeware
The original error msg is shown in the attached .bmp file.

I had a bit of a panic when I first tried to run Tapeware because I was getting: "Error 333: Unexpected bus free". This problem does not occur when I don't try to run L&TT and then Tapeware without restarting my computer. Phew!!

I am now running Tapeware to see if it completes without any problems as it has done the last few occasions.

Kind regards

Steve

[Stephen Spear]

Tapeware completed without any problems.

[LTT Team]

Hello Stephen,

Could you please check the cabling and the other things related to device scanning. Looks like LTT has detected the drive as Bnchmark instead of Benchmark. This might be a reason why LTT is claiming this to be unsupported device.

Thanks,
Srivathsan

[Richard Bickers]

Just wanted to thank you for the feedback. We now realise that there is an issue with the install clean-up utility and will be fixing that soon after our next main release.

The workaround as described in this thread is to use the uninstall method in Add/Remove Programs - which is our recommended method anyway.

The utility is really only for recovering after the installation has become messed up and doesn't uninstall cleanly even with Add/Remove Programs.

Thanks, Richard (LTT PM)

[Stephen Spear]

Hi Srivathsan

Thanks for your msg. I am nervous about playing around with the cabling because I don't have a good knowledge of SCSI cabling etc.

My computer was put together by a friend when I was living in Denmark. He is very experienced in building computers and has used SCSI a lot. I'm now living in the UK but will try to contact another friend who lives nearby who probably has the necessary expertise.

The drive worked without any problems for over 4 years until I received the error msg as shown in my last but one msg. In the past I have twice has to re-install files from the DLT VS80 after re-formatting my RAID0 configured hard disks due to hard disks corruption problems.

Is there any chance that the "Error 517: Hardware failure" msg that I received a few times when backing up using Tapeware could be due to overheating? I have recently had to move the two hard disks from removable trays with fans to elsewhere in the tower cabinet because one of the trays 'died'. They are now quite close to my DLT VS80 which may be running hotter as a result. I'm not sure but the error msg may have been appearing during a warmer period a month back. Recently it has been cooler and I've had no problems.

Thanks once again for the help.

Steve