bluebrook Posted November 16, 2008 Report Share Posted November 16, 2008 The drive is reporting a bad media/dirty heads error 206. I have used the cleaning tape three times today. It was crashing earlier today and then I got one recycle back-up of over 30GB to run fine. I have shut the computer down and shut the tape drive down and unplugged it for a couple minutes. I have not made any changes to my system for quite a while, because everything has been working great and I wanted to keep it that way. Today I upgraded to the latest Retrospect, just in case that might fix the problem. OS 10.4.11, Retrospect 6.1.230, driver update 6.1.15.101, device access version 10.0.107, configuration 108 K, Dual 2.7 G5, 3.5 GB ram. ATTO ROM version 1.5.2. Card installed on slot 4. Tape drive revision 1914, SCSI address 6. Any other info I need to provide? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebrook Posted November 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2008 Additional info, the log entry says: Additional error information for device "Seagate Ultrium 2 DC" [0:6], Sense > f0 00 03 00 00 02 aa 1e 00 00 00 00 0c 00 00 00 00 95 (CERTANCE|ULTRIUM 2 |1914) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twickland Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 It was crashing earlier today What was crashing? Retrospect or the entire backup computer? Was it an unexpected quit or a freeze? What screens, etc., were displayed? Has this tape drive seen a lot of use? As mechanical devices, tape drives do eventually fail and need repair or replacement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebrook Posted November 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 (edited) The back up was terminating with the "bad media" error, but the application was still running. I used the cleaning tape a third time, changed to a different SCSI cable and changed the order of the volumes and after 11 failed back ups, it has run two 60 GB back ups without failing. It was consistently failing at the same number of files copied, and when I put the file it was failing on in a different folder it would then fail on the very next file (sequentially numbered jpg's), for the same number of files copied before failing. Looks to me like it was a Retrospect issue. This is an LTO-2 tape drive which is only six months old. Edited November 17, 2008 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twickland Posted November 17, 2008 Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 The back up was terminating with the "bad media" error, but the application was still running. OK, so no "crash." Retrospect was doing exactly what it's supposed to do when the destination drive reports a failure. Looks to me like it was a Retrospect issue. I doubt it. 206 errors are originated by the backup device, so it's not likely to be a Retrospect-generated problem. It was consistently failing at the same number of files copied, and when I put the file it was failing on in a different folder it would then fail on the very next file (sequentially numbered jpg's), for the same number of files copied before failing. Were you writing to the same tape member when the backups were failing? There may be a problem with that particular cartridge. Does your LTO drive have status lights that would indicate problems, such as with the tape or the drive? If so, were any lit? Even a new drive can have problems. If the errors reappear, I would have the drive checked out. I assume it's still under warranty? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebrook Posted November 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2008 No status lights. I find it a bit odd that I would have 11 backups that failed at precisely 1861 files copied. If there really was a dirty head or SCSI cable problem, I would expect the failures to occur after different numbers of files copied. Then, I change the order of the volumes in the script and suddenly it will copy more than 12 times as much data with no failure? Changing the back up order is a software thing, not a hardware thing, although maybe the issue is firmware related. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted November 18, 2008 Report Share Posted November 18, 2008 I find it a bit odd that I would have 11 backups that failed at precisely 1861 files copied. If there really was a dirty head or SCSI cable problem, I would expect the failures to occur after different numbers of files copied. Then, I change the order of the volumes in the script and suddenly it will copy more than 12 times as much data with no failure? Changing the back up order is a software thing, not a hardware thing, although maybe the issue is firmware related. If changing the SCSI cable did away with the failure, then the test to better learn if that was the actual cause (and not just a coincidence) is to regress to the original SCSI cable. If it fails again, and going back to the second cable makes it work again (again), then it's a pretty good bet that the cable was the cause. Or you can not worry about it since it's working now! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebrook Posted November 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2008 I don't have the guts! If it happens again, I'll do cleaning tape, SCSI cable, and back-up order in three separate rounds to see what happens. Glad it's working again. It always puts me on edge to not be able to have an off-site copy for even one day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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