f.dei@gmx.de (Felix Deichmann) writes:
>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?
>(dmesg-Output attached...)

That's not normal, but since you are getting SCSI timeouts, either the
tape is bad or, more likely, the drive is failing.  HP DAT drives tend
to die after about 1.5 years of light usage.  And when they are dying, they
get a lot of read and write errors and just retry the operation for ever.

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

HP's DAT firmware is so braindead, that whenever you get a lot of read or
write errors, it turns the "please clean the heads" LED on.  However,
you *must* run a cleaning tape through the driver after about 10 hours of
use, otherwise it will die before the 1.5 years of its usual life are over.

I think you'll be happier with a Sony or even an Archive^WSeagate DAT drive.
I sure am, after being through a bunch of HP DAT drives.

--chris