Re: LTO4 drive with possible issues

[Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Another thing I forgot to ask on LTO tapes:

4) Doing a little reading on LTO tapes and I found on Wikipedia (which is
never wrong <g>) "LTO uses an automatic verify-after-write technology to
immediately check the data as it is being written, but some backup systems
explicitly perform a completely separate tape reading operation to verify
the tape was written correctly. This separate verify operation doubles the
number of end-to-end passes for each scheduled backup, and reduces the tape
life by half."  We do verifies via the backup software.  Should I forget
that?




On Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 3:27 PM, Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> All,
>
> We're having some tape issues with our Windows servers backups to LTO4
> tape.  We're trying to figure out if the issue is some of the tapes or the
> drive.
>
> Questions:
>
> 1) If I find someone else locally that has an LTO4 drive for Windows
> backup, the tape should be compatible with that drive, correct?
>
> 2) If I find someone else locally that has an LTO4 drive for IBM i, the
> tape would *not* be compatible with that drive, correct?
>
> 3) The backup software (Nova) has a Format option that I use to name new
> tapes.  Since that takes a matter of seconds, it's really just naming it
> and doing some quick format to say "I'm an empty tape".  Is there such a
> thing as a true formatting of an LTO tape after it leaves the factory?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
> Jeff Crosby
> VP Information Systems
> UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
> P.O. Box 13369
> Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
> 260-422-7531
> www.dilgardfoods.com
>
> The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion of my
> company.  Unless I say so.