[geeks] Dying DAT72 drive?

[Mark]

I've noticed recently that a couple of mornings a week, when I've gone  
in to pop out the backup tape, that the DAT72 drive in our server has  
been stuck in a mechanism loop and failed to backup. it seems to sit  
there doing this:

Click-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt-Click, Click-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt-Click

Repeatedly.

I reckon it's about had it. I've tried using the cleaning tape and it  
holds it off for a few days but it's getting more and more frequent.  
Our backups are now at serious risk, we're dropping more than 2 a  
fortnight now and it's not good.

The drive is a Seagate/Dell SCSI unit that was bought new with the  
Dell Poweredge 1800 server in 2004, and which worked flawlessly until  
I renewed the backup media from a set of Dell tapes (it did it 1 or  
two times latterly with the Dell ones) to a set of Sony replacements.  
Since I did that around the 3 year mark it's started acting up, at  
first once in a blue moon, but latterly more often. I've even tried  
swapping some of the tapes for new HP media and that worked for a  
while but is also starting to screw up now. I tried attacking it with  
Dells tape drive maintenance utility and it seemed to clear up for a  
month or so but now it's come back.

Any advices are welcome, do we need a new drive here?

Are USB2.0 ones any good? I don't fancy swapping over an internal one,  
it'd mean having the server out for over an hour and I don't want  
that. USB 2.0 would be hot-plug and at worst a reboot cycle, right?

-- 
Mark Benson

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"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."