Our site for quite some time has experienced what we would classify as a high
failure rate with our DDS drives.  We have a wide variety of HP DDS drives, in
fact between all our systems almost every model.  The failure we were
experiencing ranged from bad media, stuck tapes, to unexplained errors with the
drives.  The media we were using were the HP DDS tapes, no third-party tapes
except for the ones we received from vendors which had to have the DDS symbol
for us to use.
 
One of our Operators noticed a build up in the glue both on the DDS drives and
on the tapes themselves.  This came from the area where the small label goes
which is on the same side as the read/write tab.  As well often this small label
would work it's way loose, or become misaligned with the side.
 
Around the first of the year we started *NOT* to place this small label on the
side of tapes (but still the large one on top).  As well we removed the labels
from the existing tapes and cleaned the sides to remove the remaing glue.
 
Since this time with we have not had a single tape/drive failure!!!
 
I don't know if this is the exact cause, but with 30+ DDS drives throughout the
City, not having a failure for 4+ months is welcomed relief!!!
 
I would be interested in hearing any comments about this...
 
/isaac