We did LTO-1 for three years and are now 18 months into mixed LTO-1 and
LTO-2. I've got two tapes that have been damaged by dropping - both
about 4 feet. As mentioned in one of the other notes, the cases
seperated slightly and the pin is out of alignment. I could probably fix
them and put them in service, but I figure it's not worth the risk.

We do put the tapes back into the plastic boxes when they're out of the
library, and ship the tapes vertically (mostly). Our internal tape
courier is an ex-mainframe operator and not especially noted for
gentleness. But we've had no other tape failures in the past 4+ years,
for what it's worth.

IIRC, the 3590 high-density cart was especially listed as fragile by IBM
because if dropped flat, the tape puck could bottom-out in the cart with
potential damage to a clock track or sync track on the edge of the tape.

Tape is tape; take a little care in packing, and the gorillas won't be
able to damage it without more work than they'll want to do.

Tom Kauffman
NIBCO, Inc

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Tab Trepagnier
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 12:51 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Alleged LTO fragility

This is  a tape media question.

We are considering moving from DLT8000 to LTO-1 for offsite tape
storage.

Our local IBM guys told us that LTO tapes should not be dropped more
than
1/2 inch or they risk being damaged.  If you've ever watched a vault
vendor handling tapes, you know that 1/2" is pretty optimistic.

So, is that true?  Would our offsite data be at risk if our vault vendor
dropped an LTO cartridge a whole inch?

Thanks.

Tab Trepagnier
TSM Administrator
Laitram, L.L.C.
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