Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!stl!stc!praxis!hilbert!sfr From: sfr@praxis.co.uk (Stephen Rickaby) Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp Subject: Re: Pre-formatted tapes for HP drives Summary: HP drives; Good, Bad or just Ugly ? Keywords: Streamer, Reliability, 3M Message-ID: <3554@newton.praxis.co.uk> Date: 20 Dec 88 14:06:25 GMT References: <1074@statware.UUCP> <26038@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA> <9055@bcsaic.UUCP> <2614@csccat.UUCP> <9303@bcsaic.UUCP> Sender: news@praxis.co.uk Reply-To: sfr@praxis.co.uk (Stephen Rickaby) Followup-To: comp.sys.hp Organization: Praxis Systems plc, Bath, UK Lines: 47 In article <9303@bcsaic.UUCP> jsadler@bcsaic.UUCP (James Sadler) writes: >In article <2614@csccat.UUCP> jack@csccat.UUCP (Jack Hudler) writes: >>In article <9055@bcsaic.UUCP> jsadler@bcsaic.UUCP (James Sadler) writes: >>>Out of the last four AXE and PE tapes we received 3, >>>repeat 3 of the 4 have been bad. Do you what its like to be part way ... >>I have been working with HP equipment for 8 years and since we started >>I have never had a bad tape from HP, I also wonder how often y'al clean >>an aligned the cartridge tape drive ... >The Drive's are the 7914's and have been on HP maintenence since day >one. I have had HP out to look at the drive's and they haven't found >any problems. The tapes that go bad have been the ones from HP. The >only one I recall being bad from our stock (from HP) is the one I've >mention. >>>through a upgrade and have the tape be bad ??!! Since this involved >>>an ... wondering about it. The last thing I'd get is a HP cartridge >>>drive. >> >>I am not picking on you Jim, just this bad attitude about formated tapes. >Generaly I like HP and think they do a great job. Its just that after ... Hey calm down guys! I also used 7912/7914s for years. The drives were *very* reliable. There is a well-documented case of a *single* batch of 600' tapes from 3M going bad. This was about early '86, and I think, although I am not totally sure, that it was the batch numbered 54xxxxxxx. In the UK this problem was rectified and the tapes replaced. Perhaps this did not happen so thoroughly in the States :-). The problem manifested itself with misreads due to oxide layer breakdown: a fine white deposit could be seen on the tension band under a good light. Check this out before flaming HP ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Rickaby | ,,, Praxis Systems plc | < O_O > 20 Manvers Street, Bath, BA1 1PX, UK | ==( . )== Tel: +44 225 444700 Tx: 445848 PRAXIS G | Prrrouwf, Wackwacka sfr%praxis.uuc@ukc.ac.uk | !mcvax!ukc!praxis!sfr | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- '1$x/\{{[^}]*}\}/\{<1\}/q/' ... do it in lower case, it's more polite.