On Saturday 31 August 2002 07:45, Brian Jonnes wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I think I have a faulty tape or two. What is the best recommended
> way of testing this? Generate a file from /dev/urandom, write it
> to the tape and md5sum it?

Most drives do the equ of that themselves. its when they can't 
recover the error that you become aware that its doing re-read 
after re-read and reporting a failure.
>
>Also, what is the expected lifetime for Travan 4 tapes (each used
> once a week)? When should I retire them?

My experience with TR4's is that they will usually outlast the 
drive.  Thats not saying much, but we did have one in an NT system 
that probably accumulated in excess of 1500 passes (never changed 
the tape) when we retired the box it was in.  2 other TR4 drives 
failed, one of them ripping the tapes in two violently, in less 
than a year.  So generally speaking, TR4's aren't any more, or less 
dependable than a DDS2, but the DDSx format is slowly pulling ahead 
in my personal tally sheets.  Plus the DDS2 tapes are beaucoup 
cheaper...

-- 
Cheers, Gene
AMD K6-III@500mhz 320M
Athlon1600XP@1400mhz  512M
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