We have an Ultrium internal tape drive to do monthly backups. Last week, in the middle of writing a tape, it ejected it with an input/output error and started flashing the cleaning light. Of course, no cleaning cartridge was about, so I ordered one. It arrived today; I inserted it into the drive--and nothing happened. That is, now, three hours later, the cleaning light is steady amber and the ready light is flashing. According to HP this is normal during cleaning, but the cleaning is not supposed to take more than 3 minutes!
Pressing eject button and holding it for 20 seconds or so does nothing. Issuing mt eject/offline commands returns an unspecified input/output error. The cartridge is stuck in the drive! mt status works, however, returning
SCSI 2 tape drive: File number=-1, block number=-1, partition=0. Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x0 (default). Soft error count since last status=0 General status bits on (10000): IM_REP_EN
Just wondering if anyone has any ideas, e.g., is the drive itself a write-off? Or is it salvageable? And is it worth it?
Thanks
EDIT: Held the eject button for about 40 seconds, which cleared the "clean" amber light. Now the mt offline actually ejected the tape, but the mt command itself hangs.
EDIT2: Oops. The amber light is back, flashing, the tape ejected but mt offline exited with yet another input/output error. I suspect the drive is no longer with us...
EDIT3: Here is some more interesting behaviour: when I insert an actual tape, it hems and haws and stutters for a few seconds and spits it back out without any messages. Tried it with 2 different tapes.