We have a C1501A DDS Tape Drive with the HP-IB interface.  This is the old 1.3
GB
drive that only uses 60m tapes.  Anyway, we have been getting a lot of errors,
at
least I think they're errors.  Our nightly partial backups usually only use one
60m tape, but lately they have been using two tapes and the top LED on the drive
is blinking (which I've been told indicates that errors occurred).  And the
weekly full backup, which used to take two tapes, has gone to three. Also, the
STORE program has rejected three tapes in the last two weeks as bad/unusable.

We are backing up approximately 1.1 GB every night (partial) and 2.5 GB every
week (full), so we are right on the borderline for tape capacity.

Anyway, I called the HPRC (the drive is on support) because I remember there was
some utility that let you dump the error log for the tape drive so you see if in
fact there were errors occurring, and if so, what type of errors there were.
The
HPRC was less than helpful, as the Technician told me to clean the drive more
often (we are doing it once a week now), and try newer tapes (most of our tapes
are under two years old).  When I asked about a system utility for MPE that
would
dump the tape drive error log, he said "I don't know anything about MPE, I only
work with UNIX"!!!!!

So, my questions are:

1)  How do I know if errors are occurring and using up more tape, or if it's
just
more data being backed up?

2)  Is there a way to dump the tape drive error log (I seem to recall a utility
called TAPEUTIL)?

3)  What is the life expectancy of a DDS tape?

4)  Should I just bite the bullet and get a SCSI drive that will handle 2-8 GB?

TIA.

Jim Phillips                            Manager of Information Systems
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]      Therm-O-Link, Inc.
Phone: (330) 527-2124                   P. O. Box 285
  Fax: (330) 527-2123                   Garrettsville, Ohio  44231