From owner-freebsd-questions Sat Apr 25 09:31:34 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA12662 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Sat, 25 Apr 1998 09:31:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from bbs.mpcs.com (bbs.mpcs.com [204.215.226.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA12622 for ; Sat, 25 Apr 1998 09:31:19 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from hg@penny.n2wx.ampr.org) Received: from pickle.n2wx.ampr.org (pickle.n2wx.ampr.org [204.215.226.89]) by bbs.mpcs.com (8.8.8/8.8.8/MPCS spamzap) with ESMTP id MAA20525; Sat, 25 Apr 1998 12:30:54 -0400 Received: (from root@localhost) by pickle.n2wx.ampr.org (8.8.8/8.8.2/n2wx) id MAA09254; Sat, 25 Apr 1998 12:30:51 -0400 (EDT) Received: from penny.n2wx.ampr.org (hg@penny.n2wx.ampr.org [204.215.226.90]) by pickle.n2wx.ampr.org (8.8.8/8.8.8/n2wx) with ESMTP id MAA09247; Sat, 25 Apr 1998 12:30:41 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from hg@localhost) by penny.n2wx.ampr.org (8.8.7/8.8.7/n2wx) id MAA06019; Sat, 25 Apr 1998 12:30:40 -0400 Date: Sat, 25 Apr 1998 12:30:40 -0400 Message-Id: <199804251630.MAA06019@penny.n2wx.ampr.org> From: Howard Goldstein To: Greg Lehey Cc: Karl Pielorz , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SCSI tape prob 2.2.6R In-Reply-To: <19980423133304.40168@papillon.lemis.com> References: <199804211506.LAA11316@bbs.mpcs.com> <353CB7DE.42C5E8F4@tdx.co.uk> <19980423133304.40168@papillon.lemis.com> Organization: disorganization Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Greg Lehey writes: > On Tue, 21 April 1998 at 16:14:38 +0100, Karl Pielorz wrote: > > Howard Goldstein wrote: > >> > >> I'm seeing these failures during attempts to read tarred stuff from an > >> HP 1533A (surestore) with 'tar t'. Writes go through OK... > >> > >> Apr 21 10:52:42 cally /kernel: st0(ahc0:4:0): SCB 0x8 - timed out while idle, LASTPHASE == 0x1, SCSISIGI == 0x0 > >> Apr 21 10:52:43 cally /kernel: SEQADDR = 0x5 SCSISEQ = 0x12 SSTAT0 =0x5 SSTAT1 = 0xa > >> Apr 21 10:58:32 cally /kernel: st0(ahc0:4:0): MEDIUM ERROR info:0x2800 asc:11,0 Unrecovered read error > > > > Could be either cabling or... > > > >> My drive's orange light flashes after it's done this for a number of > >> minutes (hardware error? OEM drive, no manual, all mention of the > >> 1533 disappeared from HP's site) > > > > I think this means it needs the heads cleaning... ;-) > > All of these symptoms point to excessive read errors. When did you > last clean the drive? You should do so whenever the LED starts > flashing. > > That's not the only explanation, though. It could equally well be a > problem with the tape. It's almost impossible to tell the difference > except by deduction. There was one other but less scientific and more hearsay way....Dejanews reveals a number of instances of this problem that all point back to a drive flaw, namely a known incompatibility of the 1533A with non-HP 120M tapes. After about 20 hours of struggling with these (Maxell 120M DDS2) I dropped in the one 90M tape I had for initial testing and wham, not a single glitch reading a backup made almost a year ago, and subsequent read/write cycles on that tape work great. As an aside I tried many possible cable configs, termination options to no avail, head cleaning both with tape and careful manual cleaning. So it >seems< a *(#%$%# drive+media combo. Kick me in the head and call me sally for loss of two days productive work. arrrgh (Did HP go downhill after they stopped making the 16C? I wonder...) Thank you for your advice and support [[as an aside does anyone have any thoughts about coercing these 120M tapes to be treated as 90M tapes? I wonder if the lower density will let me get something useful out of this box I bought, or if the attempt isn't worth persuing]] To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message