HP colorado 5gb int. & colorado backup II (windows9x)

[JimH_1]

I have an old colorado 5gb travan drive, three years old and never worked. I have it installed as a slave on secondary IDE as instructed by the Install Assistant. Had loads of trouble initially, so I downloaded current Tapediag.exe and firmware update. I now have firmware version 2.08 rev 12 ( what a task that was - had to use DOS). Drive is id'd ok in BIOS, no resource conflicts; I can run all media tools from DOS, but not Win9X. After removing dos dev drvr from Config,sys - Removed and re-installed Col Bkup II - drive detected OK, tapediag.exe passes all 3 tests. Any attempt to use the Win9x software returns message "the device has received an invalid command. 05-20-23-00-2600"
I'm sure this is a software problem, but can't find any help on CD or this site? Can anybody help me get this dog running?? My predecessor quit on this - but I'm not a quitter. Help. TIA
Jim H