Stuck Tape

[Steve]

Has anyone come across a problem with a DAT tape stuck in a drive? I'm sure
its not physically stuck, but its W2k server that says the drive's not
there, and so pressing the eject button has no response.

It got that way after it was asking for another tape to be inserted during a
backup, and I cancelled the job. Then from then on, it refuses to play.

Should I uninstall the drive without actually removing it and allow Win2k
server to 'discover' it on reboot?

Meantime I'm backing up to disk....not recommended.

Steve

 

[MyndPhlyp]

Has anyone come across a problem with a DAT tape stuck in a drive? I'm sure
its not physically stuck, but its W2k server that says the drive's not
there, and so pressing the eject button has no response.

It got that way after it was asking for another tape to be inserted during a
backup, and I cancelled the job. Then from then on, it refuses to play.

Should I uninstall the drive without actually removing it and allow Win2k
server to 'discover' it on reboot?

Sounds like the backup, or a portion of it, is still running even though you
cancelled the job. I've seen some backup software get rather unhappy unless
it gets to completely rewind the tape and logically dismount the drive. Try
cold booting the server and, while it is going through the shutdown/startup,
press and hold the eject button. It should force the drive to spit out the
tape after rewinding. If the problem persists, chances are your tape drive
is getting tired. Head cleaning might give you temporary relief.

 

[Steve]

Sounds like the backup, or a portion of it, is still running even though you
cancelled the job. I've seen some backup software get rather unhappy unless
it gets to completely rewind the tape and logically dismount the drive. Try
cold booting the server and, while it is going through the shutdown/startup,
press and hold the eject button. It should force the drive to spit out the
tape after rewinding. If the problem persists, chances are your tape drive
is getting tired. Head cleaning might give you temporary relief.

Thanks I'll give it a try.

Steve

 

[MyndPhlyp]

That did the trick! It must have been the cold reboot that was needed, as i
had tried several warm reboots without success.

Cool. The mystery that remains is whether the failure to eject was that of
the host controller or the tape controller. "Somebody" was holding a state
even after a reset. My bet is the tape drive.

Monitor the logs frequently for errors or other symptoms, and start shopping
for your next backup solution.

.... or, just wait for the thing to die and hope you don't get caught.

 

[Kris Shaw]

HI,

I would bet on the tape drive too - I had to cold power cycle a compaq
server to eject an SDLT tape before now. The drive itself had got into
a state where it just wouldn't respond to any software command to
eject. However, after a power cycle it was happy to eject.

Might be worth checking to see if a firmware update is available for
the DAT drie (to the OP). I updated the SDLT's and touch wood has been
better since, in that it seems able to eject dodgy tapes now rather
than lock up.

Kris