Is there any tool to check a tape? We have an 8mm Exabyte Mammoth2
drive and have gotten a couple of failures lately and want to see if
it's the tapes themselves. As I've learned with these drives,
anything is possible.

Thanks.


-Ken

In message <bfjh5f$frj$1@reader1.panix.com>, Ken <nntp@hellrot.org>
writes
>
>Is there any tool to check a tape? We have an 8mm Exabyte Mammoth2
>drive and have gotten a couple of failures lately and want to see if
>it's the tapes themselves. As I've learned with these drives,
>anything is possible.
>
>Thanks.
>
>
>-Ken
>
>
>
I don't know about any tool. I remember from the Exabytes I used to have
that it was possible, with extreme care, to lift the flap and visually
inspect the condition of the start of the tape (assuming it's rewound).
I think that this region gets some extreme wear as the tape is pulled
out and wound around the recording head.

Also you can try reading the tape, or restoring to a spare system.

And it's pretty clear that the cost of the cartridge is pretty small
compared to the value of the contents. If in doubt, I'd chuck it. And if
you think that the drive may have damaged a tape, then get it swapped
out, and change the tapes too.

--
Andrew Lennard andy@kontron.demon.co.uk