On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 22:45:12 -0500, Gerard Nicol
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I am not saying that handling tapes with due respect is not important, but
> given my own personal experiences tape is not as fragile as you might
> believe.

Interesting. personal testaments are good, but if one reads the
Storage Magazine article that Hugh mentioned yesterday you will find
such gems as the following

Speaking of bad tapes straight from the box "We recently had a bad
batch of tapes that place our entire enterprise tape backup at
risk..."

"Storage administrators admit that tape mishandling can often be the
cause of a failure..."

"one candid respondent ...indicated that dropping a tape is the most
common user slipup."

"I've had a lot of problems with ...tape leaders being ripped
off...disruptive enough that (the) group did a visual inspection of
all 500 ...cartridges."

"20.4% of respondents said failed tapes cost their organizations more
than $300 per month"

"...handling of tapes is the "biggest issue with determining media
longevity and media performance..."

"I replace tapes every year," said one user, "and each one only gets
used 26 times."

and finally these best practices are offered at the end of the article

Handle tapes as little as possible. Tape vendords say dropping a tape
is the most frequent cause of damage.

Read and follow vendor usage specs. Don't confuse shelf life for useful life...

Store tapes properly. Extreme temperatures and humidity can damage
tapes. Make sure they're not exposed to extreme conditions when in
transit

Match applications to tape technologies

Avoid recertified tapes


Peter Kurilecz

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