[PLUG] Stumped by tape driver errors...

[Michael C. Robinson]

I'm trying to find out if my DI30 tape drive functions properly.
So far I've only gotten a new name brand onstream tape to work in it.
I try using Verbatim cartridges I picked up and it gives all kinds
of errors " blank block read/write error. "

What's the probability that the heads simply need to be cleaned?
Has anyone used these tape drives with a 2.4 kernel?  I'm trying
to use 2.2.14 and am starting to wonder if I might be running 
into a bug.  I use the following proc command, 
     tar cvfb 64 /dev/nht0 --exclude=/proc /

on my 386 in single user mode.

This is a $150 drive, I wonder if anyone can repair them?  I've
been very disappointed with Onstream technology, the company's
failure to market it's tape products has meant the near impossibility
of getting name brand media and when you can it's upwards of $30+ 
a tape.  Since the tapes really only hold 15 megs uncompressed data
and have given me so much trouble, this is no deal.  It would be
cheaper to wait for another loss leader on 120 gig hard drives and
pick up a couple of those.  Is there any tape drive that functions
decently capable of reading the DI30 ADR tapes?

I know the pressure is to go to serial ATA and DVD, however, DVD's are
are not reusable and both harddrives and DVD burners will fail long
before a tape drive will.  How does IBM's honeycomb system work?
One thing that drives me crazy about the DI30 is the block size bug
and the possibility that the patch to fix it is proprietary.

If I came to a Linux clinic would there be any tape experts there?

     --  Michael C. Robinson