Looking for an old Quantum LTO3A TCL32EC

[Joe Walker]

Hi all,

Didn't know exactly where to post this, but our facility has an old Quantum LTO3A TCL32EC tape drive that has gone kaput on us and we need to have it replaced or fixed ASAP. We've tried looking everywhere for one and don't seem to have any luck. We contacted Quantum and were told it was no longer supported nor was there any possibility of having it fixed. So any and all advice you can offer regarding this would be of tremendous help. Thanks in advance!!!!!!

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Is there any particular reason you need this exact unit? Also, as far as I'm aware, all the Quantum LTO-3 units are interchangeable, so if you can round up a TCL33xx or more common unit, you should be fine.

If you only need it to access data on tapes as a stand-alone LTO reader, then any LTO-3, LTO-4 or LTO-5 unit should work just fine. The only reason you would need one specific tape drive model is if you have oddly customized software that only works with that unit or it's part of an automated tape library system that only controls that unit. Both of those situations are not common, but do exist.

 

[Joe Walker]

Hey Jeff,

We have an LTO5 machine but our software for it is LTFS...and the software we had on the LTO3A (I'm told the A in that made it impossible to be cross compatible with virtually all other LTO's) was a java applet that was apparently only suitable for that particular drive. We even tried reading our LTO3 tapes in our LTO5 machine and it can't see them. Its an odd little conundrum to say the least.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Yes, the LTO-3A system was a proprietary nightmare. If your 'A' unit is functional and it's the tape drive inside it that has failed, you can [or *should* be able to] replace it with any Quantum SAS LTO-3 tape drive mechanism.

While LTO-5 units can read LTO-3 tapes, the "A" series units had their own proprietary format, so there is no way to access the data bundle on the tapes. Technically there is, but last I checked, Quantum never made the specifics available to do so. They sold their "A" series tech off to Cache-A, who tried to make more products based on the A format and network access system. That didn't seem to pan out well for them at all and the industry shifted to LTFS. Cache-A was absorbed by ProMax... But you can still get to them at cache-a.com as they might be able to answer some questions for you or possibly provide a solution or other repair service if you don't want to gamble on picking up a surplus LTO-3 mechanism and installing into your LTO-3A unit.

 

[Matthew Riggieri]

Hey Joe

I PM'd you, but We have a Cache-A Prime-Cache LTO4, and it has LTO3a read capability. We are trying to get rid of it.