On Mon, May 12, 2003 at 10:38:12PM -0400, Mitch Collinsworth wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 11 May 2003, Jon LaBadie wrote:
> 
> > 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.

After posting my questions above I recalled the comments of a speaker
from Fuji at a tape technology talk recently.  IIRC he recommended
using DDS3/4 tapes 50 times.

Then I thought, 2.5 yrs x 52 wks, 130 dumpcycles.  Each tape used
once every 3 dumpcycles.  That's 43 uses.  Maybe I better check
more regularly.  I don't amverify right now.  Is that a suitable
test for tape readability?  Of course that doubles the use rate :)

-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
 JG Computing
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