Tape drive service

[BlackTie]

Hi,

 

We're a school based in South Manchester with a five year old Dell PowerVault TL2000 tape backup drive that seems to be going a bit poorly - backups regularly failing to complete with "dirty tape" errors on brand new tapes even after repeated changes of cleaning tape.

 

Was wondering if anyone can recommend a (reasonably) local firm who might be able to provide a service?

 

Any suggestions greatly appreciated,

 

Steve

[biggjb]

On line back up is now the way forward. The days of tapes are gone due to new compliance rules that makes using them more awkward. PM me for further info

[twin--turbo]

Have you updated the firmware on the drive? if not start with that and download Dells tape utilities.

 

You will find a number of service repair companies on google, it's about 9 years since I had a drive repaired.

 

Interestingly both our HP 2024's ( same as your library ) ripped tape leaders of tapes withing 3 weeks of each other so they have fully refurbed HP drives in them. Our old Dell TL4000 robot failed 3 days before the end of it's warranty so that was replaced with a fully refurbed unit with two LTO-3's it's hardly ever used so they have probably doen 4 hrs work in 2.5 years!

 

Rob

[BlackTie]

Rob,

 

Yup - a firmware update made no difference so I definitely suspect hardware failure. On reflection I think we'll end up going for replacement just in terms of peace of mind...

 

Cheers for the suggestions nonetheless - look out for a job-lot of unused (albeit second hand) tapes on eBay!