Media Errors on Tapes

First, full disclosure: Model 250 running V5R1.



We have a cartridge tape drive 7207 Model 122. The data files backup runs
unattended each night. Lately it is crashing and burning with media errors;
in fact, it has failed the last four [4] nights.



Tapes do go bad, but it seems unreasonable to me to have this many go bad so
quickly. In fact, some of the tapes, except for initialization, have never
been used before. Plus it always blows at exactly the same place. And we
have cleaned the tape drive after each failure.



Am I being illogical to think that it is the tape drive, rather than the
tapes, which is at fault? Is there any way to determine that?



I have been trying to get the company to upgrade the system for years with,
obviously, no success. Any other options? I have been told that this tape
drive is no longer available (maybe eBay but you get what you pay for
there). But are there any other backup alternatives for off-line storage?



Thanks.



Jerry C. Adams

IBM i Programmer/Analyst

Science is not a liberal conspiracy.

--

NMM&D

615-832-2730