Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!pcserver2!kdenning
From: kdenning@pcserver2.naitc.com (Karl Denninger)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: Tape Backup Problems (cpio read errors)
Summary: COMMON FAILURE MODE!!! Be careful on this!
Message-ID: <1991Jan15.165807.12417@pcserver2.naitc.com>
Date: 15 Jan 91 16:58:07 GMT
References: <1991Jan11.034524.21413@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> <1701@ulowell.ulowell.edu> <1991Jan14.052704.23339@karnak.cactus.org>
Organization: AC Nielsen, Bannockburn IL USA
Lines: 32

In article <1991Jan14.052704.23339@karnak.cactus.org> john@karnak.cactus.org (John B. Meaders Jr.) writes:
>In article <1701@ulowell.ulowell.edu> mschedlb@hawk.ulowell.edu (Martin J. Schedlbauer) writes:
>>
>>Finally somebody who also has that problem!! You can still make backups
>>but use /dev/rmt/c2s0 instead of /dev/rmt/c0s0. The problem may be caused
>>by several factors:
>
>Nice to see I am not the only person with problems.  I have an Archive
>FT-60 that used to work under Esix.  Now it doesn't (I fear a bad controller).
>It still reads (I have an old tape) and appears to write.  However, when
>you read you get garbage.

This is a REAL common failure mode.  I lost a disk and found my backups were
worthless on this one once.  Fortunately, I was able to recover the data off
the hard disk (another one of my horror stories).

The FT60s have this problem, and it would appear only this problem.  This is
the only failure mode I've EVER seen on that tape drive!

It's actually a controller problem -- get another controller.  The problem
will go away.  Unfortunately, you're hosed on the data you (thought) you
wrote to those tapes -- it isn't there.

Now I verify ALL tapes for readability.

--
Karl Denninger - AC Nielsen, Bannockburn IL (708) 317-3285
kdenning@nis.naitc.com

"The most dangerous command on any computer is the carriage return."
Disclaimer:  The opinions here are solely mine and may or may not reflect
  	     those of the company.