A regular 3590 tape when used in a 'B' drive capacity is 10GB, extended tape capacity is 2x or 20GB. A regular 3590 tape when used in a 'E' drive capacity is 20GB, extended tape capacity is 2x or 40GB. A 3590 'B' drive can read / write both tapes. A 3590 'E' drive can read / write both tapes. A 3590 'E' drive can read tapes written by a 3590 'B' drive. A 3590 'B' drive can NOT read tapes written by a 3590 'E' drive. A 3590 'E' drive can NOT write to tapes ALREADY containing data written by a 3590 'B' drive.
Cautions. Mark all tapes as full if you change drives from 'B' to 'E'. Check your device classes for capacity settings. In the 390 or Z/OS world there are parmlib settings you need when changing drives. -----Original Message----- From: Gill, Geoffrey L. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2001 8:54 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Is a mix of 3590E normal tape with long-tape possible? >In our library IBM-3494 are 3490E tape-units. This library >will reach its >limits for the number of cartridges. >We think of replacing the 3490E normal tapes by long-tapes. > >Does TSM support a mix of different tapes? Fred, I have the same issue here. The modified 3590 has a green 2x sticker on back. What I've been told is regular drives can read "J" tapes but 2x drives can read "J" and "K" tapes. Maybe someone else can comment on this. Because of this I've been waiting till after the upgrade of my drives to insert them. TSM has nothing to do with how the 3590 handles the tapes or what mix of tapes it can read/write to. That's all hardware related. As long as the hardware is supported the rest should be behind the scenes stuff..... Geoff Gill TSM Administrator NT Systems Support Engineer SAIC E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (858) 826-4062 Pager: (888) 997-9614
