You need a driver for the OS you are using and tape backup to actually use the drive.

What OS are you using?

Unknown_K wrote on 2023-06-04, 21:07:

You need a driver for the OS you are using and tape backup to actually use the drive.

What OS are you using?

I installed W10 for the occasion. As it's a tech dating back to 2005 I guess XP could be a good candidate too (and I could use it my other machines).
It's really like "you tell me what's best". 😀

I use it through a PCI SCSI card.

I will assume that you got the driver connected to scsi card, and scsi card bios does recognized the tape drive. And you currently seeing yellow mark in the device manager because there are no driver for the tape drive.

windows 10 backup does not support the tape drive, so you can see it but you can't use it
for the alternative, i remember that z-dat dump can work with tape drive, but it slow and only support 12Gb in free version.
also you can tried veeam backup which probably support tape drive (i don't remember much)

if you able to install windows xp, the it should work with windows backup.
regards the driver, i did get mine working with this one: https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php … riverid=1799495

Most old PCI SCSI cards don't have drivers past Windows 7 x64 if that (Adaptec anyway). ATTO has a PCIE SCSI card but they are hard to find.

Typically the backup software included drivers which were preferred to OS drivers anyway.
Common ones before virtual servers were Arc Serve or Backup Exec. Veeam is still the defacto when dealing with virtual servers
I'm more familiar with HP which had software called Tape Tools that managed drivers, firmware, diagnostic etc.
Quick look IBM's version of this is called "IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool"

I managed to setup fine my Quantum DAT72, DDS ,(on win7x64e, with 7x64 drivers, from hp or dell) but when I got to my cassete's they were for DDS2... oh well... how can we assist further? (btw mine had red light on so I used cleaning tape to fix problem).

did you try Archive site for aditional drivers?

I'll go through a Win XP installation.
Yes, the drive is connected and everything is recognized.

Just can't make it work out of the box.

Does Linux support these drives?

You will need backup software that understands tape drives. Even when the drivers are installed it's not going to show up anywhere, LTO5 and later are the only versions that can be used as a "drive" with LTFS. Bacula may work for testing, although I've not used it (only Backup Exec, Arcserve, Tapeware).

Even in Linux it's only going to show up as a block device and will need commands/software to use (tar is tape archive)

chinny22 wrote on 2023-06-05, 08:56:

Quick look IBM's version of this is called "IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool"

found!
Thanks

ediflorianUS wrote on 2023-06-05, 10:02:

I managed to setup fine my Quantum DAT72, DDS ,(on win7x64e, with 7x64 drivers, from hp or dell) but when I got to my cassete's they were for DDS2... oh well... how can we assist further? (btw mine had red light on so I used cleaning tape to fix problem).

did you try Archive site for aditional drivers?

dat72 only support reading 2 generation prior, and dds2 is like 3 generation old so it will spit out the tape anyways.
windows 7 backup does not support backup to tape drive, so your best choice is z-datdump freeware.

nhattu1986 wrote on 2023-06-05, 17:46:

ediflorianUS wrote on 2023-06-05, 10:02:

I managed to setup fine my Quantum DAT72, DDS ,(on win7x64e, with 7x64 drivers, from hp or dell) but when I got to my cassete's they were for DDS2... oh well... how can we assist further? (btw mine had red light on so I used cleaning tape to fix problem).

did you try Archive site for aditional drivers?

dat72 only support reading 2 generation prior, and dds2 is like 3 generation old so it will spit out the tape anyways.
windows 7 backup does not support backup to tape drive, so your best choice is z-datdump freeware.

I'm gonna give it a spin (pun intended) at it.
TB tapes, I could save everything I did so far in my whole life. 😀

Installed Win XP SP2
IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool installed.
I cannot display the contents of the tape, but I think it is blank.

I'm probably making mistakes but I can't find the driver for this unit on IBM's site.
The "Tool" can find the drive but I can't do anything with it. 🙁

Anyone using a IBM ULT3580-TD3 on XP?

After some more troubleshooting I found that the SCSI cards I have are the issue.
Probably too old.

Edit: it was the motherboard having issues with the PCI cards.
Swapped to another a+ W7 SP1 and everything is recognized out of the box except for the scsi card (SDI thanks!).

I need to understand how to use it but I'm a step further.

I tried Uranium Bachup 9 Gold (free pro trial) and it worked nicely.

Half height unit (U2).

With IBM's software it spins back and forth and finishes with some kind of error code.
It has issues "mounting tape".

Wiht Uranium it simply says it cannot access the unit "access is denied".

Dirty heads needing cleaning?

The IBM drivers will usually have an option to install the drivers in non-exclusive mode, in the default exclusive mode only one program will be able to access the drive. You may have to reboot after using tape tools before Uranium can access it.

The tape may need to be formatted before tape tools can do more testing. If there is data on the tape you wish to access then you would need to know what program wrote to the tape initially, LTO also has hardware encryption (controlled by the backup software) so the tape could be encrypted if it was already used.

The usual failure with LTO drives is dirt on the heads/tapes, but once a tape/drive is dirty it will go on to contaminate all the others used in it - I usually have to change to a new set of tapes when having a warranty drive replacement. I would expect the clean light to come on first when dirty, but sometimes if it is sufficiently bad the drive will enter an unknown error state instead.

Ricimer wrote on 2023-06-18, 16:53:

The IBM drivers will usually have an option to install the drivers in non-exclusive mode, in the default exclusive mode only one program will be able to access the drive. You may have to reboot after using tape tools before Uranium can access it.

The tape may need to be formatted before tape tools can do more testing. If there is data on the tape you wish to access then you would need to know what program wrote to the tape initially, LTO also has hardware encryption (controlled by the backup software) so the tape could be encrypted if it was already used.

The usual failure with LTO drives is dirt on the heads/tapes, but once a tape/drive is dirty it will go on to contaminate all the others used in it - I usually have to change to a new set of tapes when having a warranty drive replacement. I would expect the clean light to come on first when dirty, but sometimes if it is sufficiently bad the drive will enter an unknown error state instead.

I tested the unit and reports "Mount tape" ABORTED (EC 6 error code)
Trying to Mount Tape it goes back and forth seeking but eventually fails.

I'll try a cleaning tape (no idea how) or open and go with IPA and cotton bud?

Error 6 is an unknown error when loading the tape. Sometimes it can be caused by dirt and a cleaning tape/new tape can fix it. Other times it is a physical fault with the loading operation.

When you put the tape in the drive is it pulled in and then loaded? You should hear it pulling the pin out of the cassette and spooling the first part of the tape onto the spool inside the drive.
Does it eject successfully? If it spooled correctly then there will be a delay as it rewinds tape back into the cassette and then places the pin back inside (it's behind the little flap on the cassette).

I usually have to swap out drives with error 6. Sometimes I take them apart to see what is jammed or if there is something stuck inside when out of warranty. FYI A warning: the drives can have delicate ribbon cables on the outside that can be sliced by the outer case when removing/closing it, the ribbon cables run all the way though the drive and cannot be replaced easily.

You can also restart most LTO drives without rebooting by pressing and holding the eject button, although software may need its services restarted to see the drive again. They do not usually recover from error 6 and need this cycle to accept instructions again.

Nexxen wrote on 2023-06-18, 16:57:

I tested the unit and reports "Mount tape" ABORTED (EC 6 error code)
Trying to Mount Tape it goes back and forth seeking but eventually fails.

I'll try a cleaning tape (no idea how) or open and go with IPA and cotton bud?

As the tape is loading/unloading and trying to seek this is a good sign, it could be that the heads are dirty and a cleaning tape is all that is required. I have more success with repairing drives with mechanical loading issues or snapped tapes than ones that don't respond to a good clean though - the heads are delicate and easily damaged.

Electricians in servers rooms are my nemesis, I've lost a lot of customer drives to plaster/brick dust getting sucked in (most lto drive generations have a fan inside).