Correct Tarvan Tape Size used with HP Colorado 5GB Drive

[alejack12001]

Machine is Gateway P2 500 with 20 GB hard drive and 384 MB RAM using Windows XP Pro SP-3. I am using an HP Colorado 5GB Drive with HP Colorado II Backup software Version 9 that is compatible with Windows XP Pro. HP Colorado 5GB drive is IDE model and is currently on the secondary IDE bus as slave drive to NEC IOmega 100 MB Zip cartridge drive as master. The problem encountered states a hardware error when either the HP Colorado software is used for backup or the Microsoft software backup is initiated. I got Tarvan TR-4 tape and now wonder if the tape is wrong to work with this drive. According to the drive specifications, the drive can compress data to 8GB. The TR-4 tape has 4-GB standard backup with 8-GB compressed. Drive seems to work as the retention of the tape as well as the moving the tape to the start to record occurs. Is there diagnostic software that can be used to test the drive for possible bad head? Could the tape itself be too large for the drive?

 

[Chuck(G)]

Your drive is a TR-4 drive, but in my experience, Travan drives are largely junk. A blast from the past on your drive.

 

[alejack12001]

I had a Tarvan TR-1 when I was younger. It wasn't too bad and backed up pretty regularly. Unfortunately, I gave the machine with the Tarvan away years ago. So, I guess I thought this one would be a close cousin. I was just trying to make the machine in step with the period when tape drives were used as a media backup. Okay thanks for the feedback.