All I can offer is a rule of thumb -- if you get write errors that are not the 
result of a dirty drive, throw it out. If you get read errors on the same tape 
on two different drives, throw it out.

We ran about 130 LTO-1 tapes in both LTO-1 and LTO-2 drives for slightly over 
seven years and I ended up dumping six tapes over the period.

Tom Kauffman
NIBCO, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Bell, Charles (Chip)
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 12:08 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: LTO Tape Life

Is there a way to find out if your tapes are nearing their end-of-use? I use
a 3584, and unfortunately am still having to deal with LTO-1/2 cartridges.
How can I tell, either from TSM (which I doubt) or from 3584 hardware level
what the amount-of-times used/mounted is? Normally, between myself and the
mainframe guys, we get rid of a certain range of volumes based on when we
bought them and bar code number. Is there a way to determine use? Thanks!



Chip Bell








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