AAARGH! Tape drive had a tape for Lunch

[john]

OK, came to my tape drive today (LTO Ultrium 1) and it had spat the tape out from last week and showed tape error, thought hmmm, never mind, and reset the drive.

All seemed well no errors put a new tape in and nasty noise and out comes flying my tape and tape error, looked in the drive for any nastys and it clearly enjoyed consuming a tape last week and it has got it all over its internals.

Now its out of warranty and no support on it, so I took it all to bits and removed all the tape (about 50 meters of it) and the metal catch on the end of it, and then re-hooked (in what i think is the right place on the spool) the plastic end of the catch that is part of the spool at the rear of the drive, but still no joy, infact it grinds worse now, has anybody any suggestions, points, schematics that I could have to look at to see if I can save some mulah on fixing this drive?

I am not even sure if I have got the tape catch thingy in the right place, the more I think about it this evening I think that may be the problem, but if anybody has any schematics, or has pulled one to bits before could they possibly spread some light on this one please? I will have another look tomorrow at it and see if anything else hits me in the face, but any help is appreciated

Ta!

[Dos_Box]

Time for a new drive I reckon. Get managemnet to dig deep and get yourself one of these (both Ric and I have these)...
http://www.tandberg.com/index.php?op...245&pdbl=1&a=8

[john]

DB, I would love to get a new one, but my budget is £0.

I have for temp measure stuck my own personal one in, and I think this ones going off to Cristie's to be repaired, talking to a mate of mine, should only be a couple of £100 to fix which is much cheaper than a new one.

Also, i've had Tandberg tape drives before and I would never have them again, my last one really did enjoy tapes, and this ones done 5 years without eating a tape, its just been in once for a service as they kept catching on the way in and out, so if its a few £100 to repair, its not bad really. I am looking at a posh snazzy solution for next year that will do magic tricks as well as tape so justification of a new drive aint easy as this ones not going to have as big a role to play in future, so I may have to bring my plans forward for something else.

[Dos_Box]

5 Years! What's the capacity on that?

[john]

its an Ultirum 1 so its 100/200GB one. Sent it off to Cristie's should be back end of the week, nice easy repair.

[Richie1972]

We've got an Ultrium 2 drive that's got a lovely error light - looking to get it repaired, but can't seem to find anywhere... you mention Cristies, have you got any info on them?

The problem with our drive is that there was a stuck tape that we manually removed (as per instructions on Quantum website) and now when the tape is put in, activity light flashes, tape comes out and goes back in a few times then error light comes on (had it work ok once or twice, but not at all now). I reckon it's the carriage that's misaligned (I'm no tape drive expert)

Richie

[john]

http://www.cristie.com/index.php?id=8 is the link for them, they are a good firm, but unfortunatly the drive was un-economical to repair, so it got junked this time round, as it had mangled some stuff on the way in and out and when I looked closer on return of the unit I can see it.

[Butuz]

Seriously John - it's not a good idea start bringing your own equipment in to school, the more you "help" the school by buying things at home, the more they grow to rely on the fact that you will always bail them out.

Backup's are so important that whatever budget you think you have, you should be able to negotiate money from SMT/SLT. If you struggle, remind the head that should the server fail and the pupils lose all their GCSE coursework for example, they will be held legally responsible.... usually wakes them up a bit.

Andrew

[tomscaper]

Seriously John - it's not a good idea start bringing your own equipment in to school, the more you "help" the school by buying things at home, the more they grow to rely on the fact that you will always bail them out.

Backup's are so important that whatever budget you think you have, you should be able to negotiate money from SMT/SLT. If you struggle, remind the head that should the server fail and the pupils lose all their GCSE coursework for example, they will be held legally responsible.... usually wakes them up a bit.

Andrew

I was going to say the same thing, as soon as you start helping with your own equipment they will just take advantage of that and you will never get a new drive.

If you have no backups and they know that, it will force the issue, mabye hiding some important data will make them realise what is at stake.