IIRC, Tracy is correct, the first write to the tape will write data that is "understandable" by the software
that mounts the tape (volume labelled/unlabeled mounted on ldev x)...

Thanks,
Gary

Gary Robillard
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Home: 970-805-3679
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-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tracy Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2022 9:36 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] ONS - DDS-3 DAT tapes

Only one solution I can think of:

After you write to it once (say with a small flat file); will the same tape exhibit the same behavior after being used once?

Like the old days, prepping a reel-to-reel tape for the first time with a BOT mark.

On 3/16/22 10:37, James B. Byrne wrote:
> I recently opened a sealed box of HP DDS-3 tapes and put a couple into service.
>   These two tapes, alone of all the tapes that we use for daily 
> backups, cause our tape drive to exhibit a strange behaviour.
>
> When loading one of these tapes the drive will often visibly move 
> (lift and
> drop) the tape several times and then after a short period eject it.  
> Other times it will load the tape after reinsertion but will mount it 
> without write enabled.  Sometime it loads the tape correctly write enabled on the first try.
>
> I first thought that the tape drive was beginning to fail, but 
> switching drives did not change those tapes' behaviour.  It is only 
> these two tapes that do this.  I have not tried any others from that 
> box, yet. However, I have several boxes of these in storage and I am 
> concerned that there some problem with using older new stock tapes.
>
> Has anyone else had experience with this sort of thing?
>
>

--
Tracy Johnson
BT







NNNN

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