[Info-vax] A VS DLT rant

[Richard B. Gilbert]

On 8/22/2011 2:24 PM, VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG wrote:
> In article<22477b62-a162-49fe-9a78-4ab62609af19 at h7g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, Rich Jordan<jordan at ccs4vms.com>  writes:
>> I despise VS series DLT drives.
>>
>> A couple years ago we purchased two new in box but old stock VS80s to
>> upgrade both VMScluster and wintel backup (from DAT).  All new tapes
>> (since the pile of DLT8000 tapes we had would require degaussing to
>> work on these drives).
>>
>> One drive worked fine until now (unfortunately the one on the PC
>> side); the other drive self destructed after about 1 month of
>> operation (outside of the seller warranty, and since this was old
>> stock there was no HP warranty).  So we limped along with DAT backups
>> on the VMS side (which never failed).
>>
>> Recently got a good (?) deal on a brand new rackmount unit with two
>> Quantum VS80 drives installed.  Same deal, 2 week seller warranty, no
>> Quantum warranty.  Since we still had a buttload of new tapes for this
>> format, and it sold for not much more than new cleaning tapes
>> (included) go for and we needed a cleaning tape anyway,  we bought
>> it.  Figure we'd start new with both drives, one PC, one cluster so
>> the working HP drive was pulled.  All old tapes were retired and we
>> started with fresh new ones.
>>
>> 31 days later, the drive on the PC side self destructed.  Ate a tape
>> (that had only been used twice before in the rotation, without
>> errors), broke and sucked the leader.  Same exact symptoms that the
>> first failed HP had.
>>
>> Wondering if this is a design issue or if its simply the "Outsourced
>> production 50% failure rate in the first couple of months" QC/
>> Manufacturing issue.
>>
>> So the HP drive goes back into the shiny new rackmount enclosure and
>> we hope it keeps working.  Hopefully next time we 'upgrade' backup we
>> can go to real DLT-type drives and not the 'value line'.  My DLT8000
>> at home (bought used, and using up all those used DLT4 tapes mentioned
>> above) is still going strong with no issues.
>>
>> I hate VS tape drives.
>
> Perhaps the VS stands for "very shoddy?"

Tape drives are "high maintenance"! All that I have ever used have 
needed frequent maintenance!  My experience runs from seven track reel 
to reel drives to DLT with other problematic devices in between!!!!!
All required frequent cleaning and frequent repairs.

They are, or were, a necessary evil!