[Info-vax] HP Surestore DAT24 firmware download?

[John Wallace]

On Nov 15, 11:22 pm, smithfarm <presnyprek... at gmail.com> wrote:
> Continuation of my DDS-3 tape drive saga.
>
> I obtained a different SCSI controller (Host Bus Adapter) -- an Adaptec
> which is recognized by Windows XP. Installed HP Library & Tape Tools.
> Downloaded the latest firmware and tried to install it - it failed. The
> drive still works, though, and the behavior I am seeing is the same as
> before, so I don't think the unsuccessful firmware update damaged the drive.
>
> The drive continues to exhibit the following behavior: it writes data to
> tapes just fine (no errors), but all attempts to read are unsuccessful.
> Depending on the program used, the read either fails without reading a
> single block, or it reads a few blocks (sometimes up to 1/3 or 1/2 of
> the size of the archive) before failing. But fail it does, every time.
>
> Windows Backup fails to read a single block (error message about
> "inconsistencies" on the media). Linux tar will read a small fraction of
> the data before giving an error. The size of what is successfully read
> differs from controller to controller. HP Library & Tape Tools reads the
> most, but also fails with an I/O error before reaching the end of the
> save-set.
>
> I have not tried backup/restore on the rx2600 yet, but at this point I'm
> assuming it will be the same story there as well.
>
> Intriguingly, the HP Library & Tape Tools "DDS Drive Assessment Test",
> which also writes to and reads from the drive, is successful (on both
> OpenVMS and Windows). However, when I go from there to the "Write/Read
> test", which writes 4 GB of data and then reads it back, it fails about
> 1/3 of the way through the read (in the Windows version; haven't tried
> this on VMS yet.)
>
> I have gleaned the following information so far:
>
> (1) The drive is an Ultra Narrow SE device (50-pin connector).
>
> (2) I have a 50-pin to 68-pin converter on the drive, and from there
> I've got a classic terminated ribbon cable for two devices + the
> controller.
>
> (3) The drive is device no. 2 on the bus, and the controller is device
> no. 7. There are no other devices on the bus.
>
> (4) The manual has this to say:
>
> The drive does not support termination on the device itself. Normally,
> drives such as this are not required to be at the end of a bus, but if
> this is unavoidable, HP recommends the use of the feed-through SCSI
> terminator listed below, which plugs directly into the rear of the
> drive. Use active termination because the drive is capable of a transfer
> rate greater than 5 MB/s.
>
> ...
>
> When using feed-through termination, termination power must be supplied
> to pin 26 of the SCSI Interface. Power can be supplied by any device on
> the bus. If you want the drive to supply it, set a jumper across the two
> pins marked Term power in figure 2.7.
>
> (5) The setting of the "Term power" jumper (on/off) has no effect on the
> test results.
>
> Any idea what could be causing this "write ok, read not-ok" problem? Can
> it be termination-related? (I thought improper termination always
> resulted in the drive not being recognized at all.)
>
> Thanks,
> Nathan

In addition to the basic-SCSI troubleshooting suggestions so far...

You know the write process isn't reporting any errors, and that the
read process does report errors.
Does this reliably mean that the write process is actually successful?

You could be more confident if you also had another known good drive
on which to check the tape had been properly written. But afaik DAT
drives do not do their own "read after write" so it *may* be erroneous
to conclude that the data is written OK when you've not checked it
elsewhere.

Do you have (or can you get) any tapes with known good data which you
can attempt to read on the drive under test? That would give you more
information on whether the drive could read a tape or not.

Not sure where this leaves you.