On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 12:43:05AM -0800, Simon J. Gerraty wrote:
> My DLT 4000 appears to be sick.  I thought it might have been the host
> adapter, but I've plugged it into a different machine (ss20) and the
> behavior is much the same.  
> 
> It probes ok at boot (usually).
> 
> Sometimes when I put a tape in it does not complete its normal setup 
> (wizing the tape about etc).
> 
> If the tape loads ok, one can run amcheck to see the tape label etc,
> and mt status shows the tape loaded.
> 
> Shortly afterwards though, the thing stops responding.  On both the
> i386 and the ss20 we see stuff like:
> 
> root:129# mt -f /dev/rst0 status
> mt: /dev/rst0: Input/output error
> st0: error 5 trying to rewind
> st0: WARNING: cannot revert to default density
> 
> the cables used in each case are different, and I've tried a different
> terminator...  a DAT drive plugged into the same bus on the i386 was
> operating ok.
> 
> The tape drive was _full_ of dust, but is now pretty clean and has had
> a cleaning tape run through it.  After that, amanda was actually able
> to start a backup run, but it soon died with all I/O to the tape
> failing.
> 
> Any suggestions - other than buying a new tape drive?
> 
> These things seem very rugged, but this one certainly seems ill.

Does the kernel print some error message ?
The SCSI error message, with ASC/ASQ may contain more infos.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 24 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--