Sony SDX-T3CSL capacity?

[CA1080629]

I just got my AIT drive and it came with a Sony SDX-T3CSL tape which says "2GB Native" but it will only let me fit 1GB native with all compressions disabled.

On the back it does say "Capacity: 2GB (Sony SDX-300C) *Values are drive dependent".

Is it possible my drive is defective or is it really only a 1GB native tape or can my drive (SDX-420C) only use 1GB on this particular tape?

I only have 7 days to return the drive so I need to find out if this is a tape or drive problem ASAP.

Thanks

[CA713937]

I'm thrown off by your capacities referenced.

The SDX-300C & SDX-420C are AIT-1 drives, which have a native capacity of 25 or 35GB depending on tape length.

The SDX-T3C tape is a 25GB native tape.

I'm not sure what the 'SL' nominclature refers to.

[CA1080629]

I know its a 35GB native drive, but the seller only had SDX-T3CSL tapes which says 2GB native, I took one so I could test the drive to be sure it's working once I got it, this is the tape:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2786784461&category=11165

I just want to be sure I wont only have half the capacity of 35GB tapes too, I just looked at drive t: properties (I use 1Safe for drive letter access) and it says the disk capacity is about 1.2GB.

Does anyone know is the SDX-420C can only use 1.3GB on these tapes? Or does 1Safe use up 700MB for something? On my old ADR drive (15GB native) it did say 15GB capacity in the properties.

Is there a chance the drive is defective? I might not get the 35GB tapes I ordered by the time my 7 days to return it are up.

Thanks

[CA713937 · Accepted solution]

The hp and sony AIT drive documentation I have only references 25GB (170M) and 35GB (230M) tapes.

The 25BG tapes (from sony) are SDX-T3C (w/MIC) and SDX-T3N (no MIC).

The 35GB tapes (from sony) are SDX1-35C.

From the e-bay picture, it looks like an SDX-T3CSL is a real tape, and it is only 15M long.

Doing the math 25*15/170 = 2.2 GB. I suspect some that is not fully usable at the ends, so it should be a 2GB native tape - assuming the drive supports it.

I can't find anything that says this tape is officially supported in an SDX-420C (note: the sony website only has an manual for an SDX-410C). That may explain why you aren't getting exactly what the stated capacity is.

It is a sony part number, so it's strange that there's no reference to it in the product manuals.

My guess is the tape is for special purpose software distribution, firmware update tapes, or something similar requiring fairly low capacity.

Given the low cost of SDX-T3N tapes holding 35GB, I'm not sure why you would want to use 2GB tapes (unless you want to do many small backups that need to be on different tapes).

[CA1080629]

Thanks, as I said the only reason I got the 2GB tape was so I could test the drive when I got it since I wont get the 35GB tapes for another few days.

I just hopw I wont have similar problems with 35GB tapes.

Thanks

[CA713937]

I wouldn't expect you to have any problems with 25/35GB tapes. This is most likely a corner case of the 15M tapes not being fully qualified in the AIT1 drives.

You might want to research if there is a firmware update that provides support for the 2GB tapes. I'll look at the HP release notes for AIT firmware and see what I can find. I'm guessing you have a Sony-branded drive though, and you would need to check with Sony for their firmware releases.