Ultrium 920 filling tape at 280GB of 282GB

[Michael McKenney]

I had the same results from Windows x64 Backup and Backup Exec 2010. At 280GB, it ejects the tape and asks for a second tape. It finished at 282GB. The actual size of the files. Compression is 1:1. They are pictures and movies from vacation trips and other photog projects. Device screen in Backup Exec shows a full tape of 396.9 GB. I have tried hardware and software compression. Same results. I am using D22D firmware. Any suggestions? It seems strange to add roughly 120GB in overhead to the tape.

[Richard Bickers · Accepted solution]

The drive could be using more tape because it is having difficulty writing. It uses a form of auto-sparing and will use enough tape to make sure that what is written is good quality. If the drive is having trouble it could be using a lot of tape.

Best bet is to pull an LTT support ticket and see what the drive->health section says. If you post the ticket here we can take an in-depth look.

Best time to pull a ticket is at the end of the backup. It's OK if you eject the tape as the tape info is cached. If you've used the drive for other things since then the data we need to look at fades into history and is less accurate.

LTT also has the drive assessement test. This will tell you if your drive is in good condition but you'll need to find another tape you can write on.

LTT is at http://www.hp.com/support/tapetools.

Good luck.

[Michael McKenney]

Should I try a new tape? Should I try cleaning the drive? The cleaning light is not on.

[Richard Bickers]

For something to just try then, yes, clean the drive and try another tape.

I'd still suggest pulling a ticket or running the drive assessment test to find out what the drive thinks is going on and whether it's in good condition (respectively).

The ticket will tell us a lot about the drive if pulled straight after the backup. This short doc should get you going if you've not used LTT before: http://www.hp.com/support/lttfaq

[Michael McKenney]

Do I need to get the drive repaired or replaced? I don't use the drive that much. I included the report

[Richard Bickers]

I see what appears to be a blocked head in one direction (there are 16 for each direction) and that is causing a lot of auto sparing in that direction.

Looks like it failed the assessment test which is what you'd expect for a blocked head.

The drive does need attention - best bet is to try a clean or maybe even a couple of cleans and then try the assessment test again.

If a clean or two doesn't shift the block then you'll have to contact HP support for a replacement assuming it's still in warranty.

They'll ask you to run the assessment test so you can tell them you've already done that.

Do try the cleaning first though please - it uses special media and there's an internal brush in the drive which gives it a good scrub too.

Good news is your data is fine - it's just that you don't get as much as expected on the tape.

[Michael McKenney]

I have a LTO 3 cleaning tape. I will give it a few cleanings. I have never seen the cleaning light come on. I was told to only clean them when the drive requested it. Should I clean them more often like every 3-6 months?

I was getting overheat warnings. I did clean out the chassis with compressed air. I blew around the drive. Should I remove the drive and check for dust around the PCB and outside of the drive also? The drive bay above and below are empty.

I thought all those drives ran at 40 MHz. I was surprised to see it can handle 320 MHz SCSI speed. I put it up to 320 MHz. It did not make that much of a difference?

[Michael McKenney]

I ran a C7978A cleaning tape three times on the LTO3. I still have errors. Should I try another tape? Can HP repair a drive out of warranty? How much?

[Michael McKenney]

I can't find my warranty information

EH841A
EH841-60005
Serial: HU1073659D
WWYY: 3607

[Richard Bickers]

I believe these drives carry a 3 year warranty so you may well still be covered.

If you call HP support and give them the serial number they should be able to look it up. As long as your company name lines up with what they've got and the serial number matches that's probably enough.

I don't know how much it would be to extend the warranty I'm afraid. That might be another question for support.

If you've cleaned the drive 3 times and it's still failing the assessment test then that's your best bet now. My guess is the compressed air blew some debris into the heads.

As a last resort (only do this if you don't have any warranty and you don't plan to extend it) is to try a swab dipped in alcohol. That can shift some forms of debris sometimes. Make sure you only apply minimal pressure as you don't want to damage the head or shift the head alignment but a gentle rub might help.

I'm hopeful your warranty is still intact and you can get a replacement.

[Michael McKenney]

I called a few days ago. The replacement drive should be here tomorrow. Thanks for your help. I will report back with how it worked out.

[Michael McKenney]

Installed the new drive. Assessment test passed. Symantec Backup Exec 2010 completed the first full backup with no issues.

[Richard Bickers]

Glad to hear it. Hopefully with your faster HBA you'll be getting higher performance too. These drives can go very fast if you can source the data fast enough.

[Michael McKenney]

Thanks for you help. I really appreciate it.

[Michael McKenney]

Temperature warning in Backup Exec 2010. Drive bays above and below the tape drive is open and has vents. I will install a few fans in the front of the chassis. I have PC Power and Cooling drive bay fan coolers. The computer is in the basement.

[Richard Bickers]

You can check the temperature in the LTT ticket or run the LTT temperature check which keeps the drive busy for 30 mins and checks the temperature at the end.

These drives do need air flow through the tape path to keep cool so you'll need a fan for that.

[Michael McKenney]

I moved the tape drive and placed a 80mm below it. If it needs that much cooling, why didn't they put more venting around it. I will run a temperature test and report back.

[Richard Bickers]

I think it's got venting wherever it can have it - not sure you can vent the sides for an internal product - and the airflow is best from front to back so the best place for the fan is at the back, pulling air away from the drive. (rather than pushing debris into it).

I don't think it needs a huge amount of air flow but the air does need to be moving through the drive.

I'd have thought normal case fans would be enough with the drive in situ but these drives do go quick at full speed (more than 5M of tape/S) and the motors do generate heat.

[Forrest Mook]

I was/am having the same issue with my HP 1x8 G2 Autoloader with an Ultrium 920 tape drive in it. Last week it started mis-reporting the amount of space used on my tapes by a very wide margin. Around 240GB of data on the tape and my backup software would ask for another tape. Looking at the tape properties showed it had used the entire 390GB capacity of the tape.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only person having this issue. Definitely not a software issue as I moved the tape drive to a server with a fresh install and it did the same thing, and I tried an HP Ultrium 460 drive that I had and it had no problems on the same machine.

HP's LTT Tools showed no problems with the drive and I worked with HP's tech support for about 3 hours before they finally agreed to send me a replacement tape drive. Still waiting on that to arrive.

[Richard Bickers]

That also sounds like a drive issue, possibly debris/contamination causing a drop in error rate and an increase in the amount of tape needed. Symptoms are the same - write/read is OK but too much tape needed.

I'm concerned that LTT didn't show anything. Did you run the assessment test? That's the one that'll report on capacity issues. The write/read test just shows it can write and read - which it still can.

Do you have any of your LTT files from running these tests? I'd like to see your eventlog.ltt and resultlog.ltt files if you've still got them. You might have a few copies which you could zip up and attach?

Thanks for your help.

[Michael McKenney]

assessment tests failed on old drive. I cleaned the drive 5x. Used a new tape. Luckily it was under warranty. I was shipped a new one. I can't understand how part of LTT showed everything was fine. Took a while to get proof it was the drive.

[Richard Bickers]

This is good feedback. Which part of LTT was saying the drive was good. Is this the ticket? Do you still have it?

Thanks, Richard (LTT PM).

[Michael McKenney]

I will check to see if I still have the old files.

[Forrest Mook]

Hi Richard, I don't want to hijack Michael McKenney's thread with my own problems, but I still have my log files if you'd like them. They are attached. We did run the LTO Assessment test while I was working with HP Tech Support. The test stopped after about 6 minutes and simply said "Test incomplete, try another tape" (it was a brand new tape). The tech didn't seem to have a problem with this and we didn't re-run the test.

This wasn't enough to get tech support to agree to replace the drive. Finally I got the tech to remotely connect to the machine to see exactly what was happening and with some 3GB test files it was using anywhere from 7 to 9GB of the tape (random amounts each time).

Anyway, I still have the defective drive installed because I am waiting on a replacement, so if there is anything else you'd like me to do on it I'll be happy to.

[Forrest Mook]

And just to add closure to my comments on this. I received my replacement Ultrium 920 today for my 1x8 G2 autoloader and it fixed my tape capacity problem.