20/40 Compatibility with SQL Server 2000

[Ayman Altounji]

Server: Compaq Proliant 5500 (Windows 2000 compatibility 5.10b installed)
OS: Windows 2000 Server (SP1)
Database: SQL Server 2000 (standard edition / SP1)
Tape Drive: 20/40 GB DLT (Compaq)

I am having problems backing up a database to the tape drive. The tape drive is installed locally and appears in SQL menus as \\.\tape0. When I start a backup the progress bar appears but always stays at zero percent. After 8 to 12 minutes an error message appears and reads as follows.

Title: Microsoft SQL-DMO(ODBC SQLState:42000)
Body: Write on ?\\.\Tape0? failed, status = 1117. See the SQL Server error log for more details. BACKUP DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

When looking in the SQL log I find the following three major messages
---
BackupMedium::ReportIoError: write failure on backup device ?\\.\Tape0?. Operating system error 1117(The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.)
---
Internal I/O request 0x272429C8: Op: Write, pBuffer: 0x27390000, Size: 983040, Position: 196608, UMS: Internal: 0xC0000185, InternalHigh: 0xF0000, Offset: 0x30000, OffsetHigh: 0x0, m_buf: 0x27390000, m_len: 983040, m_actualBytes: 983040, m_errcode: 1117, BackupFile: \\.\Tape0
---
BACKUP failed to complete the command BACKUP DATABASE [GOL_DB] TO TAPE = N?\\.\Tape0? WITH INIT, NOUNLOAD, RETAINDAYS = 20, NAME = N?GOL_DB backup?, SKIP, STATS = 10, DESCRIPTION = N?July 26 complete?, FORMAT, MEDIANAME = N?GOLJUL26?, MEDIADESCRIPTION = N?GOL COMPLETE?
---

When I look at the contents of the tape afterwards it shows that the
MEDIA NAME : GOLJUL26
MEDIA DESCRIPTION : GOL COMPLETE
MEDIA SEQUENCE : Family 1, Media 1

So I think the tape is being formatted correctly but for some reason SQL cannot backup the database to the tape drive. Is this a driver problem? And if so what drivers should be installed. The tape drive works fine using Windows 2000 backup or Veritas backup and SQL will successfully backup the database to the disk drive no problem. I?d like to use the SQL backup if at all possible.

Thanks in advance.