LTFS and LTO7?

Tearabyte

What is this storage?
Joined
Sep 26, 2016
Messages
11
Is LTFS on windows 7 x64 compatible with LTO 7?

I just bought a Quantum Ultrium 7 HH model C drive. brand new, plugged into a LSI 9200-8e SAS card, in a asrock x79 extreme 11 mobo. Desktop situation.

I installed latest version of LTFS. Install worked fine.
Started copying a 2TB folder with drag and drop in windows explorer, to a brand new LTO7 tape.
Copy took 2h and reported no problems.

But when I started copying the files back to drive to test them, I got several errors... "can't read from the source file or disk" on several files.
In properties->details on the tape drive, I see several errors # 11089 (cannot read) and 61607 (data fail)

My first suspicion is that LTFS doesn't support LTO7 yet, is that the case?
If so, what software should I use to make backups?
I'm a complete noob when it comes to tape drives.
 

Tearabyte

What is this storage?
Joined
Sep 26, 2016
Messages
11
The way I copied was by just dragging and dropping the folder in windows exporer. So I didn't have any options to verify the copy.
I'm sure there is a better way, like with windows commandline or some other utility? Happy to try that if you can point me in the right direction.
When copying from drive to drive I use Viceversa or robocopy, but wasn't sure if that was viable with tape.
 

Tearabyte

What is this storage?
Joined
Sep 26, 2016
Messages
11
a few more details: yesterday after copying from the tape to hard drive turned out to be failing on several files, I went into windows explorer->properties on the tape drive, and clicked "check". It began checking the medium then soon returned errors (I unfortunately did not write them down). This morning the tape was not recognized at all, and had to be reformated.
I have just reformated it, and ran "check" again, and get "the medium was found to be consistent. no changes were made".
I'm ready to try and copy again... but what should I use to copy so I have the option to verify?
 

Tearabyte

What is this storage?
Joined
Sep 26, 2016
Messages
11
Update 1: I know why the tape was not recognized this morning, I had not ejected it properly. So I made sure to do that this time.
Update 2: I just copied a couple of test folders to the tape, then copied them back onto a hard drive with no errors. However, after properly ejecting and re-inserting the tape, and trying to copy them again, I got an error on one file. ("can't read from the source file or disk").
I can't make sense of this. If a file copies back from the tape once, shouldn't that mean it is safely written to the tape?
 

Tearabyte

What is this storage?
Joined
Sep 26, 2016
Messages
11
using Viceversa Pro that same file copies fine back from the tape.
Looks like windows explorer is getting mixed up somehow but in this case at least, the media appears to be safely stored on the tape.
 

Bozo

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 12, 2002
Messages
4,396
Location
Twilight Zone
You might be better off writing a command line script to do the copy and verify. From the command line type in xcopy /? to see all xcopys switches.
 

Megalodon

What is this storage?
Joined
Jul 19, 2017
Messages
1
This may not be the issue you're having but it caused me a lot of grief so I'm going to throw it out there.

I have an HP LTO-7 with LTO-6 tapes and tried using Windows Explorer, Teracopy, Fastcopy, and xcopy to backup with LTFS. The LTO drive would start and stop often rather than writing fairly continuously. I even put together an SSD RAID0 thinking the HDDs were too slow. It turned out I just needed to disable buffering.

I added the /j option to xcopy and it's vastly improved:

xcopy "e:\backup\stuff" x: /j /h /e
 
Top