MSL 5026 tape stuck in the drive

[Bogdan_9]

MSL 5026 w. SDLT 320 drive. Tape stucked in the drive. Tried:
- power cycle
- eject
- force eject
no success.
Please help, very important urgent data on the tape. :(

[Gennaro Tarone_2]

Have you tried powering off the MSL 5026. Disconnecting the servers connection to the MSL 5026 & then power it back on & while it is performing its power on check start hitting the eject button on the drive itself (you will need to remove the top cover form the MSL 5026 to get directly at the tape drive) right away DO NOT WAIT for the tape drive to go through its power on checks without hitting the eject button. If this doesn't work you may need to call you HP CE & have them attempt to remove the tape by taking the covers off of the tape drive itself (removale of the tape drives covers may void the drives warrenty depending on which covers are removed). Mind you I was an HP CE & I know they are not responsible for you data & the problem with the tape being stuck sounds like either a SCSI command from the server confusing the tape drive or a damaged tape and/or tape drive. If you call HP the CE may be able to remove the tape by removing the tape drives covers but this will not guarrentee the integrity of the tapes data & you must be certain that the tape is fully rewond back into the tape cartridge before attempting to remove the tape. NOTE: even if you get the tape removed from the drive this is no guarentee that you will be able to read/use the data from that tape since it may already be damaged & putting it in another tape drive may only cause that drive to get this tape stuck in in also. If you do get the tape out I would reccomend taking the tape to a data recovery company that deals with recovering data from damaged media.

[Bogdan_9]

Ð Ð , done as described, no effect :(
Drive tries to unload, but unsuccessfull.
No idea about CAUSE of the problem & I'm very worry about it. Instead of general hardware malfunction could it be caused by software or SCSI fuctionality?

My host is HP ML370G2 w. CA Brightstor 2000, After series of thorough tests nothig wrong found th

[Rick Dyson]

I have had this happen twice. It was a 'bad' tape that had no visible problem. It jammed one drive and the engineer removed the tape manually by dismantling the SDLT drive. Then the drive quit working and had to be replaced.

The tape was then (before it was realized it was bad!) used in the other drive and it jammed there too. So the engineer removed it and discovered that removing the tapes in the field most likely is not a good thing! By the time it was over, both drives refused to work and had to be replaced and returned to the shop.

I have since heard an engineer from HP design say that the SDLTs are not really meant to be opened in the field. There must be something that has to be reset in order for them to work afterwards...

[Bogdan_9]

Thanks a lot for your assistance, but no advance in this case. Anyway I learn very useful things from our conversation.
Points added ;)

[Bogdan_9]

Closed