Hi, Ryan!
Trying to kill the keyboard, Ryan Kirkpatrick
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) produced 3,3K in 57 lines:
> To add to the problems the kernel boot up messages recongize the
> drive as an EXB8500, while according to Exabyte's tape identification page
> on their web site (i.e pictures of drive fronts), it is an EXB8505/XL, and
Well, 2 possibilities: Either it is a EXB8500 as Linux
claims (I think it gets that data straight from the ID of the
tape drive) and it was (fraudulently?) mislabled,
or Linux does not understand how to differenciate between
these tapes ...
$ cd /usr/src/linux # This is a 2.2.13 + Raid
$ find -type f | xargs grep -iE "(exb8500|exb8505)"
$
No, the tape is a EXB8500. Definitely, at least it's
firmware claims that.
> Also, even after multiple
> cleanings, the cleaning light is not turning off.
Bad drive or bad firmware.
> Once again from
> Exabyte's site, they say that the drive needs new firmware, so I download
> the directed firmware, and attempt to load it as per instructions under
> DOS with EXPERT (Exabyte utility). It tells me I have the wrong firmware
> image for this drive, and tells me to get the 8500 firmware image. I get
> that, and then it says it can't install the new firmware!
Maybe someone forced a EXB8500-Firmware on a EXB8505/XL. Hmmm.
Still the EXPERT should be able to get the difference.
> This drive was bought used off of Ebay (ok, that is probably my
> first mistake) but it worked fine for a couple of weeks, then started
> causing serious SCSI problems and system crashes
Hmm, termination or heat problems? Cabling still A-OK?
> So, does any one out there have any ideas on how to make this
> drive behave?
Will you ever trust the tape drive to pull you out of
a catastrophal disk crash or "Read Microsoft" accident?
You just know it will happen one day ... If not, and if you
value your data, replace the drive yesterday.
-Wolfgang
