> A quick tape question - I've got an exabyte 8500 connected to one of my
> ss5 boxes, and the drive keeps rejecting the tapes I feed it.  Does anyone
> know what kind of tapes to feed these guys?  I have a bunch of sony
> qc-112m tapes, which I thought would be right.


Hmm.  I've always associated that reject-the-tape behavior with a drive
that's simply gone bad.  (Sorry.)  Ended up retiring one of those units
myself a few months ago.  I don't know if the firmware upgrade is
relevant, or is simply a red herring.

I once sent an 8500 unit that was spitting back tapes to Pacific Data
(www.pacificdata.com).  For $250, they seemed to do a decent job of
repairing -- I'm told by the sysadmin from that company that the unit is
still working.  'Course, whether the repair fee is worth it, given that
much faster and higher capacity units start around $500, is your call...

Best of luck.

-David.