Cannot Reformat SDLT to SDLT II capacity 2

[MadAtCA]

We have been using HP SDLT drives (110/220GB) throughout our environment and just started upgrading some to SDLT II drives (160/320GB). The physical tape media (Quantum SDLT Media) is the same for both tape drive models so we began using the SDLT I formatted tapes in the SDLT II drives. We learned that these SDLT I tapes will not format to the larger 160/320 gb capacity. We have tried initiating manual FULL and QUICK formats, etc.

Whenever we put in a brand new tape (right out of the box) it will format to the SDLT II format with no problem.

We use the following Hardware/NOS/Backup Product: HP Proliant ML530 Server with HP internal or external SDLT II drive, NetWare 6.0/SP3 with ARCserve 7.0 with all the latest patches. Help if you can.

 

[davidmichel]

Check with HP support to see if it can be done.

This is not up to the software, it is the drive that is maintaining the old format. It is done by design so that the tape can then be used by boh the SDLT and the SDLT II drive.

 

[NickFerrar]

Not sure it's the same with SDLT but with DLT's to swap a DLT4 cartridge between a DLT7000 and DLT1 drive you need to degauss it first as formatting doesn't clear the header info properly so it stil thinks it's the wrong format for the drive.

 

[davidmichel]

NickFerrar
Are you sure about that?

Because Quantum support told me that there is a special header section to the tape that the drive uses and the software does not know about, and magneticly erasing or degauss will remove it and make the tape unusable.

 

[MadAtCA]

I have heard that reformatting the tape with some other product and/or NOS version (like Windows and Legato) would do the trick. Thanks to everyone for their input. I will repost after trying this strategy after it either works or fails. Thanks.

MadAtCA, CNE

 

[NickFerrar]

David - certainly with DLT it works, not sure if SDLT's have extra info pre-header that can't be lost. If Qunatum said that about DLT's it's probably because they want to sell more tapes