> I'm using a HP SureStore Tape 2000. But I think the performance is very poor
> (40 kB/s for writing or 14 hours for a 2 GB tape). Is this normal?

That's awful performance.  How are you writing the tape?  It's
important for tape performance (and tape drive longevity) to stream
data to the tape so that it doens't have to stop, rewind, and start
writing again.

The problem could be any of:

a) not streaming data to the tape
b) bad tape(s) [ can you try a new tape? ]
c) hardware problem with the tape drive

> And is it normal that the drive wants to be cleaned daily??

After a backup that runs at 40KB/s I'm not surprised, but otherwise
no, unless the environment you are using the drive in is dusty.

Was the tape drive working on any other machine before you tried to
use it on this system?

Regards,

Giles