DDS Tape problems

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Sunday, 19 June 2005 at 21:22:43 +0200, Pavel Duda wrote:
> Hi,
> I have problem with my DDS-3 type drive. I'm able to write on it but not
> read data back. If I try to read them I get card dump and tape drive
> hangs up. I have tried to upgrade firmware but problem remains. Does
> somebody have experience with this ?
>
> My specs :
> FreeBSD 5.2.1, generic kernel, x86 (P3), SCSI card is Adaptec AHA2940
> and tape drive Python 04106.
>
> I'm attaching dmesg output.

I don't have time to investigate the status output in detail, but at
first glance the output looks consistent with hardware failure.  I've
had this so many times with tape drives, in particular DDS, that I
have given up using them altogether: not a single one survived its
guarantee period.  If it's not the drive, it could be the tape, though
I've seen far fewer problems in this area.  Does this drive (and tape)
work in other systems?

I don't think it's termination; you say you only see the errors during
reading, and that doesn't fit.

What does the drive do when you try to read it?  A lot of
back-and-forth is usually an indication of hardware read errors.

Greg
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