DAT 72 - Failed to communicate with device

[Dan_Frog]

Hi,

Am new to hardware and back-ups, so please bear with me.

Have a w2003 server with an HP 72 DAT drive. Was all working fine until last week when it stopped recognizing the tapes in the Media pool. When it fails to recognize a tape, the tape drive then seems to 'drop' off from windows and any software communication (device manager, ntback-up and HP library and tape tools) all fail. Only a reboot fixes this, but only 'til it fails to recognize another tape and then 'drops' off again. So I get stuck in a loop, and continually rebooting the server is no fun.

Anyone any suggestions please? Have checked firmware version and is the latest.

Thanks,
Dan.