IBM T400F manual Resolving Media-Related Problems

Resolving Media-Related Problems

To resolve problems that are related to media, the Ultrium 2 Tape Drive’s firmware includes:

vTest Cartridge & Media diagnostic that verifies whether a suspect cartridge and its magnetic tape are acceptable for use.

vStatistical Analysis and Reporting System (SARS) to assist in isolating failures between media and hardware. To determine the cause of failure, SARS uses the cartridge performance history that is saved in the cartridge memory (CM) and the drive performance history that is kept in the drive’s flash erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM). Any failures that SARS detects are reported as TapeAlert flags on the server (see Appendix B, “TapeAlert Flags” on page 97).

Attention: If you insert the IBM LTO Ultrium Data Cartridge into another manufacturer’s tape drive, the SARS data in the cartridge memory may become lost or invalid.

If you encounter a media-related problem, use the following procedure:

Attention: When you run the Test Cartridge & Media diagnostic, data on the suspect tape is overwritten. Use only a scratch data cartridge to run the test.

1.If possible, run the tape cartridge in a different tape drive. If the operation in the other tape drive fails and 6 or 7 displays, replace the media. If the operation succeeds, run the Test Cartridge & Media diagnostic (see Function Code E in Table 9 on page 36).

2.If the Test Cartridge & Media diagnostic fails, replace the media. If it runs successfully, clean the tape drive and run the tape drive diagnostics (see “Cleaning the Drive Head” on page 35 and Function Code 1 in Table 9 on page 36).

3.If the tape drive diagnostics fail, replace the tape drive. If the tape drive diagnostics run successfully, perform the operation that produced the initial media error.

82IBM TotalStorage LTO Ultrium 2 Tape Drive