"Tim Mitchell" wrote in message
...
In article , King
writes

"Roy J. Tellason" rtellason@DONTSPAM MEblazenet.net wrote in message
...
King wrote:

Hi,

Was wondering if someone could give me some pointers on repairing a
tape
backup unit (Sony DDS3 - SCSI).
I have looked on the internet but not found anything.

The unit does not seem to allow read/write (get a scsi device error
in
Unix
when try to use it) - Note that this was a working device for two
years
and
only recently stopped working.

In actuallity I have two of these units and both are doing the exact
same
thing (They are the same age. One was installed on an NT box, and the
other
a SCO unix box)

I would really like to get these working.


Thanks

If both of these units started acting up at the same time, it strikes
me
as
being rather unlikely that they've both failed. Maybe you're looking
at a
problem with the host adapter or cabling?



I thought of that and very thing, so I got a replacement unit (exactly
the
same model) and tested it in each of the servers. It works in both.


I am guessing that because they were in production for a couple of years
in,
lets say a fairly rough environment, that the head (sorry about the
lingo)
is very dirty, such that even a tape cleaner does not resolve the
problem.

You don't get scsi device error for dirty heads. You get CRC checksum
errors and things like that. SCSI device error sounds more like a
problem with the control system in the drive rather than the actual tape
system.
--
Tim Mitchell


Tim,

Do you mean the circuit board on the actual tape drive units when you refer
to "control system in the drive "? If so, is there anything that I can try?


Thanks