I may be incorrect, but somewhere I read that the new DAT3 drives record on
the tape the number of usage's and once that reaches 99 it barfs out the
tape if it is write enabled.

Brad
Berks County 911

> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Joseph Rosenblatt
> Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 10:36 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: dds data cartridge life span
>
>
> I may be wrong but I think it is 300/500 passes over the tape. This
> translates to 5/10 reads/writes.
> (I'm getting paid by the slash today.) This was explained to me by someone
> at the Response Center years ago. Since to read  or write to a
> tape the tape
> actually passes over the tape multiple times. This is most evident in 9
> track drives back and forth movement. I would assume VSTORE also does
> multiple passes.
> I don't know how long it will last in years.
>