> Yow. With that kind of failure rate, I'd suspect something in the
> storage area for those tapes. Are they stored in your regular
> tape vault area? The 8mm and 4mm tapes are _really_ sensitive to
> environmentals, especially humidity. It's something about the
> glue used to hold the oxide coating on -- humidity causes it to
> flake off.

The tapes are stored in our data center, which is temp controlled.  It is
usually pretty dry.

> Also, how old are these tapes? The 8mm and 4mm media are
> generally only usable for about 3-4 months before you have to
> replace them. I've found the genuine HP 4mm media to be the best,
> but it's still only good for a very limited time (compared to a
> 3480).

Most of the tapes are brand new, or a few weeks old.. This is what we can't
understand!  In some cases, right out of the sealed package, the tape
will get a write error on the first pass.  I can't believe that the tapes
can be that bad.

Thanks for the replys!

Bob Booth