On Sun, 11 May 2003, Jon LaBadie wrote:

> On Sat, May 10, 2003 at 10:58:27PM -0400, Mitch Collinsworth wrote:
> >
> > Maybe not 10, but when I used DDS2 I eventually adopted a policy of
> > throwing them away after 20 uses, if they even made it that far.
> > DDS1 was even worse.  I also adopted a policy of not buying any more
> > DDS drives, so despite the newer DDS models supposedly doing much
> > better, I've never witnessed it.
>
> So you haven't used DDS3 or DDS4.

Not personally, no.  I've heard good reports about them since then
but after the DDS2 experience I couldn't recommend continuing on the
DDS path any further.


> What failure mode were you experiencing -
> Bad read/write?  Tape breakage?

Never saw a tape break, just lots of failed reads, failed writes, and
failed drives.


> Myself, I've been using DDS3 tapes in a tapecycle of 18 or 24.
> The 18 have been in use for over 2 years.  The last six added later.
> I've yet to note a tape failure.

Glad to hear it.  I saw similar longevity with DLT4000 on a drive that
NEVER had a cleaning tape run through it.

-Mitch