hp9000 dat drive "eating" the cartridge

[Danny Pogi]

hi guys,

am having problem with my tape drive. Upon execution of my backup script the dat drive (dds3) is "eating" my cartridge. MY box is an old k-class running hp-ux 10.20. Prior to this problem the old dat drive has been replaced with this malfunctioning dds3 drive last nov 2002. What could possibly wrong with my system?

thanks,

danny

[Michael Tully · Accepted solution]

Having the tape drive *eat* your tapes has nothing to do with your K class server. It is purely with the drive and or the tape(s) being used.

First, if you can remove the *eaten* tape completely, load a cleaning cartridge and clean the drive twice. Load another scratch tape and try something simple to write to the tape.
e.g.
# tar cvf /dev/rmt/0m /tmp

This should attempt to write something to the tape. If the drive *eats* this tape as well, place a call to HP and get the drive replaced. Sometimes, drives can last quite a while, others may not depending on usage/cleaning/environment.

[Steve Boniwell]

Hi Danny,

Does this happen with new tapes? I have experienced problems in the past with old DDS1 and DDS2 tapes when used in DDS3 drives. If after cleaning the drive and using new tapes the problem persists - back to hardware replacement of drive I'm afraid.

Good luck,

[harry d brown jr]

REPLACE your TAPEDRIVE.

Sorry, no OS patches for this one.

live free or die
harry

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Danny,
although I did not understand what did you mean telling 'eating cartridge' (loads tape by itself? ejects tape before 100mb are written?) but as soon as this tape drive shows such behavior I would check drive's bottom dip switches - all on except 3rd is off.
BTW, very useful utility called HP LTT can diagnose your drive and maybe recommend something... http://www.hp.com/cposupport/information_storage/support_doc/lpg50128.html
Good luck!
Eugeny

[paul courry]

Eugeny,

In Russian the word is "the tape drive is KONETS."