Tape Backup media

Reformating may not work. At least not a normal reformat. If you
read a little deeper in the manual or check out the manufacturers
website you may see something about a low level format. This puts
the tape back in to it's original shipping state. Problem is that
your drive can not perform this type of format and to send them out
can cost you as much as new tapes. This is true of Benchmark and HP
drives I don't have first hand experience with Compaq drives.

--- In vantage@y..., "rlunsf" <rlunsf@e...> wrote:
> We have recently purchased a Compaq DLT VS 40/80 Tape Drive. The
old
> tape drive was a DLT 20/40. We had just purchased 6 DLT IV 40/80
> tapes for the old tape drive at a cost of $75 each. The
installation
> guide for the new tape drive states that if you had tapes that were
> written on via the DLT 20/40 tape drive, you could not write to
them
> using the DLT 40/80 tpae drive, just read them. Is there anything
> that we can do to be able to backup to these tapes or are we just
out
> $450?
We have recently purchased a Compaq DLT VS 40/80 Tape Drive. The old
tape drive was a DLT 20/40. We had just purchased 6 DLT IV 40/80
tapes for the old tape drive at a cost of $75 each. The installation
guide for the new tape drive states that if you had tapes that were
written on via the DLT 20/40 tape drive, you could not write to them
using the DLT 40/80 tpae drive, just read them. Is there anything
that we can do to be able to backup to these tapes or are we just out
$450?
You should be able to reformat the old tapes and use it in the new
tape drive. The format of the new tape is not the same as the old
tape drive. You state you can read the OLD format but can not write
to the OLD tape. It looks like they are alowing to get data off the
old tapes it you so desire in the future.


--- In vantage@y..., "rlunsf" <rlunsf@e...> wrote:
> We have recently purchased a Compaq DLT VS 40/80 Tape Drive. The
old
> tape drive was a DLT 20/40. We had just purchased 6 DLT IV 40/80
> tapes for the old tape drive at a cost of $75 each. The
installation
> guide for the new tape drive states that if you had tapes that were
> written on via the DLT 20/40 tape drive, you could not write to
them
> using the DLT 40/80 tpae drive, just read them. Is there anything
> that we can do to be able to backup to these tapes or are we just
out
> $450?