Xref: utzoo comp.sys.hp:1314 comp.unix.questions:10525 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!twitch!anuck!maddog From: maddog@anuck.UUCP (j.j.tupper) Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp,comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: Pre-formatted tapes for HP drives Keywords: tape drive Message-ID: <1367@anuck.UUCP> Date: 5 Dec 88 21:04:14 GMT References: <274@istsists.ca> <433@iccdev.UUCP> Reply-To: maddog@anuck.UUCP (j.j.tupper) Organization: ATT Bell Labs, Andover, MA Lines: 15 In article <433@iccdev.UUCP> bill@iccdev.UUCP (Bill Gaines) writes: >Yes it is. We never buy the tapes from HP. We buy 3M DC615HC and >DC600HC tapes and certify them ourselves. I haven't tried it on a 300 >series, but our 800 series has a program called "mediainit" that will >certify these tapes that have not been certified. Buy doing it >ourselves, it saves us about $15 per tape we buy. If you don't run >mediainit on these tapes, you will not be able to use them. We use the 3M tapes (DC-600HC) in 2 9144 drives and a 35401 autochanger. We don't ever bother running mediainit and have no problems. I think this is because the later models of HP drives (like ours) do auto sparing of bad blocks on the fly. [I *know* that ours has a read while write head to check for errors as it writes, unlike earlier tape drives.] -------------------------------------------------------- sdflkjreo vdklfj (my real signature is illegible too)