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Date:	Mon, 11 Feb 2002 22:23:25 PST7
From:	"J. R. Fox" <jr_fox@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Backup problems update

Content Type: text/plain

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I think I must have previously mentioned the problems I was
having with an HP DDS-2 SCSI DAT drive here on the list. Steven
opened it to clean the capstans and rollers at a Help Desk
recently, which was much appreciated but did not resolve the
bogus CRC or media fault errors that were aborting most backup
attempts, particularly with 120 meter tapes. Some sort of head
alignment problem was looking to be a likely culprit. He then
recommended two possible repair shops, one in Anaheim and one in
Moorpark (Ventura County). This is a quick update on the
results.

The latter shop, Computer Disk Service --
http://www.compdisk.com -- is about twice as close to me. They
quoted me a price that was $100. less than the other shop, and
offered a 6 mo. warranty on the work, vs. 90 days for the other.
With these terms, I decided that a repair was worth doing, as
compared to purchasing a new unit. (Harry -- since I expect
you're reading this -- I am well familiar with your hostile
position towards tape drives, but I have a substantial library of
backup tapes at this point, so I'm kinda stuck. And this
technology has stood me in good stead for the 2.5 years prior to
these problems.)

CDS (not to be confused with the backup s/w Co. of same initials
in MN.) had my drive for 9 of the suggested max. 10 business
days. In the end, they could find nothing wrong with it, and
consequently charged me ZERO ! When I picked it up, it was in a
sturdy box with anti-stat sleeve & substantial foam padding all
around. Ever had a repair experience like this ? I haven't.
These folks also repair hard drives -- probably recover them too,
tho' I didn't ask -- and I don't know what else. I know they
sell refurbs, and maybe new drives too. I definitely plan to use
them again, when necessary. (Anyone else who may be interested,
talk to Minnie in Customer Service.)

I put the drive back in my system, which _by itself_ surely would
have continued on with the same results. Steven had previously
suggested I futz around with redoing all the SCSI cable
connections. Several of those connections are in very tight
spaces and hard to reach. I was concerned about screwing
something up on my own, and not being able to get back to the
status quo. So I didn't try this. He had also suggested
checking the device rate setting on the SCSI bus, and possibly
"dialing down" the speed setting for the tape drive. This I
could do. Most of the devices on the "slower" SCSI card had been
set for 10 mbps transfer rate, except for the scanner, which had
to be at 5 mbps (the lowest setting), for reasons I no longer
recall. None of the other 3 devices on this card and cable have
had any problems. The tape drive had been happily doing its
thing for the last couple years at 10 mbps. Well, what the heck,
I dialed it down to 5 mbps. It then performed a full 1.5 gig, 4
partition backup to a nearly new 120 meter tape, *to completion*,
with no errors. Back when the problem was coming to a head, I
had thrown out a couple of newly opened 120 meter tapes of the
same brand, because different backup programs had pronounced them
"defective."

This one trial after changing the transfer rate is hardly
definitive, but assuming it holds up, I'm left wondering how a
SCSI hardware setting that worked fine for a couple years
suddenly stops working, absent any other changes to hardware or
OS or backup app.s ? But if this issue is now corrected, I'll
settle for it. According to the backup program's own speed
meter, performance has only dropped from 40 meg.s per minute to
35.

Note to Steven, in case it is significant: even when the drive
was bombing out on most backup attempts, it could still reliably
do Restores (even from old 120 meter tapes), in many tests that I
ran.

Jordan

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