Hello, We recently upgraded our office server to suse 7.3. Everything but one thing works fine and that is the tape drive. It is an HP C1537A. This is an extract from /proc/scsi/scsi --------Begin extract---------------------------------------------------- mail:/proc/scsi # cat scsi Attached devices: Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: COMPAQ Model: BB00921B91 Rev: 3B07 Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02 Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 01 Lun: 00 Vendor: COMPAQ Model: BD018635C4 Rev: B021 Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02 Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 03 Lun: 00 Vendor: HP Model: C1537A Rev: L907 Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02 --------End extract ------------------------------------------------------- This tape model in not documented in the hardware database, however HP C1533A is. I use DDS-3 tapes of 24 GB. _A description of the error:_ When trying to write our backup to /dev/tape we get this error after a few things have been writen: ------------Begin error ------------------------------------------------ mail:/tmp # tar -cvzf /dev/tape /boot /etc /home /lib tar: Removing leading `/' from member names boot/ boot/boot-menu.b boot/boot-text.b boot/boot.b boot/chain.b boot/memtest.bin boot/os2_d.b boot/message boot/System.map-2.4.10-4GB tar: /dev/tape: Cannot write: Input/output error tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now ------------End error ----------------------------------------------------- At the same time this error occures in the /var/log/messages: ------------Begin error--------------------------------------------------- Feb 25 17:38:27 office kernel: st0: Error with sense data: Current st09:00: sns = 70 b Feb 25 17:38:27 office kernel: ASC=4b ASCQ= 0 Feb 25 17:38:27 office kernel: Raw sense data:0x70 0x00 0x0b 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0e 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x4b 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 ------------End error ----------------------------------------------------- _What have I tried so far:_ - The strange this is that when I try to write less then +/- 100k to the tape it works (I can read it back in) eventhough the above error appears in the /var/log/messages. When the file is bigger then that is fails completely. This made me think it had something to do with the block size. So I used mt -f /dev/tape setblk 128, but that didn't help. I also tried to use -b 128 in the tar command, but that didn't help either. - I then tried to set the density. It is a DDS-3. I used mt setdensity 0x25. Did not work. - mt erase took an eternity (5h) I killed the process. - Searched google: found one japanese user with exact same error: They used debian and the problem was solved after upgrading. (from 2.1.34 to 2.1.35 if I remember well) - Some suggested it had to do with parity check errors (he/she deduced that from the line 'ASC=4b ASCQ= 0') and advised me to check the wires. I did without succes. - Used new tapes. - I have also posted this error at HP, waiting for the answer. I hope this is enough information for someone to be able to help me. Thank you very much in advance. Greetings Filip Sergeys.