SUMMARY: TLZ06 drive corrupting 120m tape?

From: Thomas.Meyer <meyert_at_dla-marbach.de>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 97 13:53:41 +0200

Dear managers,

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My original question was:

Yesterday I inadvertently read a 120m DDS-2 tape containing dump
sessions using a TLZ06 drive using commands like "mt fsf 4" and
"restore -i". All I got is "I/O error". When I realized that a 120m
tape cannot be read with this drive, I tried a TLZ07 drive, getting
the same error message.

uerf reports a "Nonrecoverable medium _error" at the time of reading,
but no error at the time of the backup. Furthermore, my logfiles
report a successful backup.

My question is: could it be that the attempt of reading a 120m DDS-2
tape using a TLZ06 drive might have destroyed its content?
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Thanks for having contributed:

<soma_c_at_decus.fr>, "John F. Marten" <root_at_tigger.oslc.org>, "Eric
Z. Ayers" <eric_at_compgen.com>, "Eduardo Bergasa Balda"
<eduardo_at_Lancelot.unirioja.es> and <alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com>
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The simple answer:

The drive needed cleaning (could have guessed it, though last cleaning
was only about 20 days ago). Still <alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com> pointed
out that indeed a TLZ09 drive might harm a 120 tape:

"Yes, I suspect it could. The 120m tapes are longer because they are
thinner. The TLZ06 is probably not designed to be sufficiently gentle
with the tape. This could damage it."


Regards,

        Thomas Meyer, EDV-Systemadministrator
          email: Thomas.Meyer_at_dla-marbach.de
          smail: Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
                 Schillerhoehe 8-10
                 D-71672 Marbach
        Telefon: +49-7144-848-141
            Fax: ...-387
            WWW: http://www.dla-marbach.de
Received on Mon Jun 23 1997 - 14:34:01 NZST

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