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From: pritchaj@thor.acc.stolaf.edu (John Pritchard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: Exabyte (8mm) reliability and tapes
Summary: SONY tapes eat Exabyte drives?
Message-ID: <1990Aug1.151025.4896@acc.stolaf.edu>
Date: 1 Aug 90 15:10:25 GMT
Sender: news@acc.stolaf.edu
Reply-To: pritchaj@thor.acc.stolaf.edu ()
Followup-To: SUMMARY: Exabyte (8mm) versus DAT (4mm)
Distribution: comp.sys.dec
Organization: St. Olaf College; Northfield, MN
Lines: 32

Big thanks to Dave Sill for posting on Exabyte versus DAT.

One statement that really caught my attention was:
> 1. Caused by Sony anti-static tapes, don't use them, they're for
>    home movie cameras only.  Get certified Exabyte tapes, preferably from
>    Exabyte themselves.  Whatever gunge is on the Sony tapes it can render
>    your complete exabyte unit useless.

Well, we use Sony Video 8 tapes, and we are having all kinds of parity
problems.  Can someon else backup (no pun intended) this statement?  If the
tapes are what are causing the problems, will just cleaning the drive
and starting fresh with certified tapes get me better reliability, or
do I need to do something drastic.

I would also be interested in how long people are keeping tapes, and how many
times they write to the tape confidently before retiring them.  One more thing,
how about some contacts for purchasing 'certified' tapes.  Thanks...I
will summarize response.  

Please send response to JPRITCHA@CARLETON.EDU

John Pritchard
Manager of Software Services
Carleton College
Northfield, MN 55057


--
John Pritchard
Carleton College
Northfield, MN 55057
jpritcha@carleton.edU