As far as I know, the *only* manufacturer of 'K' tapes in Imation. I recently upgraded my 3590 E1A drives to 2X, and purchased 3 cases of extended length tapes, all were boxed/wrapped from the factory, and indicated no shipping damage at all. When I went to label the NEW tapes, 2 out of 10 would give me an error indicating that there was a problem with the tape. On a second pass however, the tapes would *sometimes* label just fine. On the tapes that just refused to label, I opened the library and ran 'tape diagnostics' on them. The diags would fail. I sent 6 tapes off to Imation for testing: 2 of the tapes indicated 'shipping or handling damage', however Imation replaced them. 1 of the tapes indicated 'a microcode problem'. The tape and diagnostic were sent to IBM Tucson for inspection, and Imation replaced the tape. No report yet from IBM. 3 of the tapes were returned with 'no problem', and I put them in the library, and what do you know.. they labeled fine. After the tapes are labeled, I do not have any problems with them.. No I/O errors at all. I have another case of 30 that have not been labeled yet, and under Imations advise, I will have my CE present when I attempt to use them. Imation, I must admit, was very concerned, and quite willing to test the tapes. They were happy to explain the test process and sent me a detailed report along with the returned tapes. I am currently running D01D_22E microcode on the drives, but my CE just handed me D01D-250, which I hesitate to install until he gives me a 'fix' list. Cheers. Bob Booth
