This chapter provides suggestions for solving problems that may occur when you are installing and operating your tape drive. These suggestions are divided into the following sections:
problems with tape drive installation
problems with the tape drive operation
Often you can solve a tape drive problem by trying the steps recommended here. If your problem persists, contact your service provider.
Most problems during installation occur because the SCSI bus or the backup software is not correctly configured. If your tape drive and backup software are not communicating after installation or your software reports a hardware error, check the following:
Make sure that all devices on the SCSI bus are single ended.
Make sure that the SCSI ID you selected for the tape drive is not the same as the ID used by another SCSI device (see “Setting the SCSI ID”).
If you have IRIX 5.3, make sure that the additional driver software is installed on the system. IRIX 6.1 software already has the 8505XL driver in place.
After checking all the items listed, reset the SCSI bus by resetting the system.
 | Caution: To prevent possible loss of data, make sure that any other devices on the SCSI bus are inactive and have completed all requested operations before powering off the tape drive or resetting the bus. |
Most problems with tape drive operation occur with improper cartridge use. If you have been successfully operating your backup software and tape drive in the past, but are now experiencing problems reading and writing data, check the following:
If you are writing data, make sure that the data cartridge is write enabled.
Check the brand of data cartridge you are using. Silicon Graphics recommends using EXATAPE data cartridges (see “Selecting Data Cartridges”).
Note: When selecting extended-length tapes for XL tape drives, only use EXATAPE 160-m XL 8 mm data cartridges. Any other type of extended-length tape may be automatically ejected (see “Selecting Data Cartridges”). Make sure that you are inserting the data cartridge correctly.
If the data cartridge has been in use for a long time or has been used frequently, try using a new data cartridge.
Determine whether the tape drive needs cleaning (see “Determining When to Clean the Tape Drive”).
If you are experiencing operating problems loading or unloading a data cartridge, check the following:
Make sure that your system is turned on. If the system is off, the tape drive may not eject the data cartridge.
The tape drive may have experienced a hardware error. Press the unload button to clear the error, then try loading the data cartridge again.
Caution: The first time you load a data cartridge after clearing an error, use a data cartridge with no valuable information on it. Make sure that the tape drive can successfully unload the data cartridge before resuming operation. If the data cartridge still will not unload, power off your system, then reboot to reset the SCSI bus.
Caution: To prevent possible loss of data, make sure that any other devices on the SCSI bus are inactive and have completed all requested operations before powering off the system to reset the SCSI bus.