Tape drive problem on Dell 4600

[Ed Cooley]

I am having a strange SCSI tape drive problem on a Dell 4600 server with an internal Benchmark DLT Drive OEM from Dell.   We backup about 30-40 Gigs of data each night.  The tape drive will work fine for a day or two then it quits working.    Any attempt to access the drive gives either a “No medium found” or “Input/output error”   [root@host2 root]# tar vtf /dev/st0 tar: /dev/st0: Cannot read: No medium found tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now [root@host2 root]# tar vtf /dev/st0 tar: /dev/st0: Cannot read: Input/output error tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now   Removing and reloading the aic7xxx module sees the controller and drive but the problem still exists until a full powerdown is executed.  If you try an init 6, the machines hangs while trying to load the linux kernel.    We have replaced the tape drive, cable, and motherboard with onboard SCSI controller and nothing has helped.  The machine is basically serving NFS and samba file operations and that is it.    I have tried RedHat 7.2 and 8.0 with the exact same results.   Funny thing is the machine is identical to another sitting right next to it that has worked for six months without a hitch.    Since I have replaced all the applicable hardware and cable what else can I look at?   Thanks, Ed   --- Edward J. Cooley - President Strategy Systems, Inc. 479-271-7400 Fax: 271-7401 http://www.strategy5.com/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]