A media error on a diskette is just like a sector error on a hard drive. Some portion of the diskette has been contaminated or destroyed and has become unusable. Damaged media should not be used to store data.
Media problems can develop in media that has exceeded its useful life. A table of tapes and their life expectancy follows:
| Tape | Expectancy |
| 4-mm DAT | Five years or 650 full-tape read or write operations. |
| 8-mm DATA grade | Four years or 500 full-tape read or write operations. |
| 1/4-inch | Not available. |
| 1/2-inch | Not available. |
The following information will enable you to:
See "Logical Volumes" in AIX Version 4.3 System Management Guide: Operating System and Devices for problem solving information on logical volume storage (storage system based on the hard disk drive).