Tape Drive Fault (Sony SDT-5000)

[newtonscat]

My lovely little tape drive, a Sony SDT-5000 DDS-2, has decided not to work properly. I did a registry optimization using Norton System Works. When the puter rebooted the tape drive self-test indicated a 'Drive Mechanism Failure' (flashing status led) and the tape led stayed on. I hadn't used the drive for a couple of days and there was no tape in it when I did the optimization. On the previous reboot an hour or so before everything had been OK. I can see no way that the optimization procedure should have affected the tape drive - ?? Now the drive wouldn't accept a tape.

Anyway - the drive has a 'load' screw. So I loaded a cleaning tape (with power off), then powered up. The drive went through the process of running the tape and then ejected it.

The tape led stayed on and the status led indicated a mechanism failure.

The cost of a professional repair is way beyond my means - is there anybody out there who knows what has happened to my poor little drive?

I've got 20 gigs of files I can't access!

Newton's Cat

 

[Comtech]

Good ol' Norton has screwed yet another user.
Uninstall, delete, erase, do everything you can to get rid of Norton, even editing the registry manually.
Then reinstall your tape system drivers.
Even this may not help, as Norton has rewritten your registry, and may have changed vital hardware settings. Cheers,
Jim
reboot@pcmech.com

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/

Moderator at

http://www.56k.com

Staff at

http://www.pcmech.com

Windows 9x/ME instructor.
Jim's Modems:

http://members.cnx.net/reboot/modems/