Re: Occasional CPF6702 Media Errors on Magstar 3570 tapes

I have had a variety of media problems, which have dramatically subsided, but 
I do not know which effort made the most difference:

On eve of heavy use, such as end of month, do a cleaning if none recently ... 
we write dates last done on our cleaning tape, so I can see at glance if done 
a few days ago or not done in 2 weeks.
Use vendor reccommended media for tape drive, not el cheapo substitutes.
Naming convention for volumes that tracks back to vendor that supplied it so 
if bad pattern by brand or vendor, we can do something about it.
Very carefully stand them on end so that the media hangs loose over the 
reels, instead of letting the tapes lay flat between useages.
I like to track when was the last time this tape was used for what purpose.  
I use post it notes on cardboard wrap that came with tape, inside plastic 
case, not lots of sticky stuff replaced on tape itself.
When off-site goes home in rotation, make damn sure that it is stored & 
transported in accordance with temperature ranges reccommended for magnetic 
media ... if middle of summer, not leave it in car very long & not in direct 
sunlight for dang sure ... if middle of winter, not leave in car very long 
like overnight by accident
Periodically run that SST that gives media statistics & replace media that is 
in trouble before it goes totally bad.
When must leave service, update some notes on date range survived, SST 
statistics, brand name etc. so I can see at a glance which brand names are 
lasting longer, and that impacts future resupply orders.
I try not to buy same brand size from two different vendors, so when we got a 
problem I know who we got it from.

>  From:    burnsbm@echoincorporated.com (Bryan Burns)

>  Our MAPICS back ups, which we perform five days a week, fail every two or 
>  three months, due to CPF6702 media errors.
>  
>  I have yet to see the cleaning indicator even be activated on this 
machine, 
>  but when the errors started occurring last fall, we started cleaning the 
>  3570 every Monday.  We still get the errors.
>  
>  We have one tape for each day of the week so I would not think it is an 
>  overuse problem.
>  
>  In the beginning of the year, an IBM CE came out and looked at the machine 
>  and had us load a  PTF or two.  We still get the errors.
>  
>  I do take the back up tapes home with me each night in a little padded 
>  envelope.  Could  the tapes be picking up contaminants through the 
handling 
>  of them?  Also, some MIS personnel used to put stock labels over the 
>  barcode labels. Some of the stock labels have since been removed, leaving 
a 
>  pretty clean bar code label but with some residue.  Could a dirty label 
>  cause a media error?
>  
>  After the most recent failure, I successfully initialized the tape in 
>  question.  I was told that if it can be initialized, then it is actually a 
>  good tape.  Is this true?
>  
>  Is it normal to have this frequency of errors?  If not, does anyone in 
this 
>  great midrange-list community have a solution?
>  
>  Bryan Burns
>  System Operator
>  Echo, Inc.
>  Lake Zurich, IL
>  Burnsbm@echoincorporated.com

Al Macintyre  ©¿©
MIS Manager Green Screen Programmer & Computer Janitor of BPCS 405 CD Rel-02 
running on AS/400 V4R3 http://www.cen-elec.com Central Industries of 
Indiana--->Quality manufacturer of wire harnesses and electrical 
sub-assemblies
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