At 08:13 AM 11/15/96 -0600, you wrote:
>MS Mail To:  X400
>
>
>>From Bill Koeneman -- Koch Industries, Wichita Kansas (koenemab AT kochind 
>>DOT com)
>
>We are a prospective ADSM user (RS6000-G40,3494-L12, 2 MagStar Drives) and
>would like to get some feedback on the reliability of both the MagStar
>drives and the 3494 robotics unit. Would like to know user experiences with
>these devices (frequency of problems, time to repair, types of problems,
>shelf life of tapes etc.). Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
>
>

Bill, we have been using a 3494-L12 with 2 drives since March.  Very early,
within a few weeks, one of the drives had to be replaced.  I don't know why,
I wasn't working with AIX then.  We have had 2 instances where leader blocks
were seperated from tapes and the CE had to be called in to correct.  We had
to do some work with ADSM to get the tape useable again after the block was
replaced. Other than those instances, we have not had any problems.  The ATL
and the tapes work well.  Because we only have 2 drives, when there is a
problem with one, we run a 1/2 speed on our backups, but we still run.
Deb Young
Dow Corning Corp