CONTACTS 
0201 - Exabyte Corporation                800 392 2983 fax or 800...
020101 - Mr. Ken Hannible; Customer Rep =7476 Ext
020102 - Technical Support      =800 445 7736
0202 - Exabyte Corporation                800 392 2983 fax or 800...
020201 - Ms. Andrea NLN; Customer Rep =7476 Ext
020202 - Technical Support      =800 445 7736
0203 - Exabyte Corporation                800 392 2983 fax or 800...
020301 - Mr. Luther Burch; Customer Rep =7476 Ext
020302 - Technical Support      =800 445 7736

SUBJECTS
Interim backups
Tapes, Defective
Maintenance, Cleaning
63841 Bad Blocks Tape A, Interim
63841  Replaced 4 MM Dat with 8 MM Dat

1107 -    ..
1108 - Summary/Objective
1109 -
110901 - Followed up work at ref SDS 17 line 49, ref SDS 16 line 41, 
110902 - line 45, ref SDS 13 line 37, ref SDS 12 line 29, ref SDS 9ref SDS 8 line 22, ref SDS 5 line 21, ref SDS 4 line 20.
110904 -
110905 - Seem to have developed information that the Exabytye 4200c tape
110906 - drives have a bad track record for reliability.  Exabyte will send us
110907 - two refurbished 8 MM Dat drives to replace the 4200c drives on CPU #8
110908 - and CPU #3.  The tapes cost $20 apiece instead of only $8.
110909 -
110910 - Schedule follow up for 970130.
110911 -
110912 -
110913 -
110914 -
1110 -
1111 -
1112 - Progress
1113 -
111301 - Tape A has crashed again.
111302 -
111303 - This is one of the 12 new tapes we purchased at ref SDS 14 line 52.
111304 -
111305 - I have done about 3 interim backups and then the thing crashed with
111306 - the software returning a reading that says bad blocks.  Additionally,
111307 - the recent upgrade of CPU #8 where we changed the configuration of the
111308 - drive partitions and this entailed backing up the data, doing a
111309 - compare to make sure the backup was reliable, then after using fdisk
111310 - and losing the data on the hard disk, when we tried to restore the
111311 - tape that had just passed a "compare" verification, but it failed
111312 - reporting bad blocks, ref SDS 15 line 130.
111313 -
111314 -
111315 -
111316 -
1114 -
1115 -
1116 - 0722 called Ken Hannible
1117 -
111701 - Followed up our call on 961218, ref SDS 13 line 101.
111702 -
111703 - Left message for Ken to call me on this.
111704 -
111705 -
111706 -
1118 -
1119 -
1120 - 0819 called back and talked to Peggy
1121 -
112101 - She found me in their records.
112102 -
112103 - Incident Number:  63841
112104 -
112105 -
112106 -  ..
1122 -
1123 -
1124 - 1103 talked to Andrea Lee
1125 -
112501 - Explained continued difficulties using the 4 MM Dat drive, per above.
112502 -
112503 - Andrea suggests we upgrade to an 8 MM Dat drive because they are more
112504 - reliable.  Andrea said Exabyte bought the 4 MM drives from another
112505 - company that has since gone out of business.  She said Exabyte no
112506 - longer manufactures them because they have proven unreliable.  She
112507 - said the 8 MM drives are manufactured by Exabyte and they are very
112508 - reliable.
112509 -
112510 - She indicated there is no charge for the upgrade to the 8 MM drive
112511 - because of the failed performance of the 4 MM drives.  This is
112512 - different from their position last year when they wanted us to pay
112513 - some additional money for the upgrade, ref SDS 6 line 69.
112514 -
112515 - The 8 MM drives have 7.5 GB capacity and 14 GB compressed storage.
112516 -
112517 - I asked if the 8 MM drives run under the Gazell software backit4.
112518 - See seemed to say it does.
112519 -
112520 - I asked if we will lose all of the data on our backups so far, i.e.,
112521 - can the 8 MM drives read the 4 MM tapes.  She said the 8 MM drives
112522 - cannot read the 4 MM tapes, so we will loose the data.
112523 -
112524 - She said the 8MM tapes cost $20 each and they recommend Exabyte or
112525 - Sony.  She offered to provide two starter tapes for us.  I agreed to
112526 - that.
112527 -
112528 - Andrea said she will get approval of this transaction from her boss
112529 - and call to advise of the schedule to perform the work.
112530 -
112531 -
1126 -
1127 -
1128 - 1547 Luther Burch called back
1129 -
112901 - Luther asked how he can help me?
112902 -
112903 - I explained we have already been helped.  I asked Luther if he needs
112904 - any further information in order to process the replacement of
112905 - defective drives offered by Andrea?
112906 -
112907 - Luther said that Exabyte does not replace drives, but instead offers
112908 - an upgrade program.  He said that Andrea is not authorized to offer
112909 - replacements outside Exabyte's corporate policies. Luther advised that
112910 - Exabyte continues to sell, service and support the 4200c drives.  He
112911 - said the Exabyte 4200c record of performance is within spec.  I did
112912 - not mention not having seen in the product spec continued failure.
112913 -
112914 - Luther said something about putting me touch with Customer Service or
112915 - something to get more information.
112916 -
112917 - I asked Luther if he is authorized to resolve customer concerns.  He
112918 - said he has this authority, so I suggested that we try to work out a
112919 - solution, rather than have more phone calls.
112920 -
112921 - I read the above record of understandings.  I further noted that
112922 - Andrea did an excellent job of explaining the replacement program and
112923 - that any disparity between my understandings and Exabyte's policies is
112924 - my fault alone.
112925 -
112926 - I explained the background where these drives have been replaced over
112927 - the past 1.5 years and that they have never performed adequately.
112928 -
112929 - Luther noted that we have received 1.5 years of service.
112930 -
112931 - I said we have 1.5 years of wasted time and strong evidence that none
112932 - of the backups performed to date are reliable, ref SDS 15 line 130.
112933 - The record of having done a backup, a verify and then getting a
112934 - failure on the restore suggests that any or all of the backups we have
112935 - made over the past 1.5 years may be defective.  The record of
112936 - continued failure on interim backups supports the latter conclusion.
112937 - Moreover, we recently incurred expense of buying new 4 MM Dat tapes
112938 - out of concern that the tapes we were using may have been defective.
112939 - That time and expense is now unrecoverable.
112940 -
112941 - I asked Luther for his ideas to address this condition?
112942 -
112943 - He said there are two options:
112944 -
112945 -     1.  Exabyte will replace our 4200c drives with refurbished model
112946 -         8505 8 MM drives.  They will have a 1 year warranty.
112947 -
112948 -         Luther said Andrea confirmed that Gazele supports the 8505.
112949 -
112950 -     2.  The customer can purchase in the market place new Exabyte 8 MM
112951 -         Dat drives of any model and submit the invoice to Exabyte
112952 -         along with the defective 4200c drives and a history of the
112953 -         problems experienced by the drive.  Exabyte then determines,
112954 -         based on years of use, how much of a rebate to award and
112955 -         writes a check to the customer for that amount.
112956 -
112957 - I explained my reluctance to spend time shopping for a drive and that
112958 - depending on Exabyte to make an accurate estimate of an equitable
112959 - rebate amount seems risky.  Therefore, I am drawn to option 1.  So far
112960 - Exabyte's drives have not survived a one year warranty, so the one
112961 - year seems long enough to make sure it is going to be reliable.
112962 -
112963 - I asked why Luther cites the model 8505 and explained my concern about
112964 - getting another model that is either no longer supported or soon to be
112965 - discontinued, as seems to be occurring with the 4200c.  Luther said
112966 - the 8505 is the Exabyte flagship tape backup drive and so will be
112967 - supported by Exabyte for many years.  He advised that Exabyte has a
112968 - large installed base of these drives in the field and it has proven to
112969 - be very reliable.
112970 -
112971 - As a result of Luther's explanation, I agreed to option 1, replacing
112972 - the current 4 MM Dat drives with 8 MM Dat drives, model 8505,
112973 - including the two tapes for each drive offed by Andrea.
112974 -
112975 - Luther will gain approval for this solution from an Exabyte VP, and
112976 - then forward the matter to their Customer Service department.  They
112977 - will contact us with an RMA number.  I explained we would like Exabyte
112978 - to send us the drives and we will use the boxes to return the 4200c
112979 - drives.  Luther said he will have this done.
112980 -
112981 - I asked him to perform follow up so the matter does not get lost in
112982 - the system.  Luther said he will do this.
112983 -
112984 - He said we will be hearing from Exabyte within the next two days.
112985 -
112986 -
112987 -
112988 -
1130 -

SUBJECTS
63841  Replaced 4 MM Dat with 8 MM Dat
Tape Drive, Exabyte 950726
RMA B9629739 - Fails to Respond to Software

1406 -
140601 - I asked about getting a replacement for the 4 MM drive on our other
140602 - computer in Concord, since it was previously replaced also, ref SDS 7
140603 - line 115.  She asked for the serial number.
140604 -
140605 - Andrea will ask her boss about replacing two drives for us and will
140606 - let me know later today.
140607 -
140608 -
140609 -
140610 -
1407 -
1408 -
1409 - 1547 see above
1410 -
141001 -
141002 -
141003 -
141004 -
141005 -