[rescue] VS80 DLT tape drive question

[Dan Sikorski]

Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
> Dan Sikorski wrote:
>   
>> Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> I was given an external VS80 (Dell branded) tape drive.
>>>
>>> The 'door' where tape goes, flaps freely in... I'm used to my
>>> DLT4000 where the door is locked closed when a tape is out.
>>>
>>>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> The VS80's are just spring loaded flaps, they don't lock closed like the 
>> larger drives do.
>>   
>>     
>>> I've opened it up, and I don't see any evidence of an interlock
>>> mechanism or even a spring to hold it closed.
>>>
>>>   
>>> When the external drive is powered on, the fan in the case
>>> causes the flap to pull partway in (pulling dust/etc into the
>>> drive).  Is this really how these drives are ?
>>>
>>> If not, where would the door spring go ????
>>>
>>>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> When you're looking at the front end of the drive, the left side of the 
>> door should have a spring on it.  If you take the drive out of the case, 
>> you should be able to see the (lack of) spring if you look at the top of 
>> the drive on the hinge of the flap.
>>   
>>     
>
> what sort of spring ?  if missing, is it likely inside the drive ? !
>
>   
The type that would wrap around the hinge portion of the flap.  I would 
guess that there's a fair chance that it is still on there, and either 
broken, or just not in the proper position.  It would not be elsewhere 
inside the drive unless someone removed the flap and it fell off in 
there.  You can remove the flap my just pushing it into the drive (as a 
tape would push it in) and flexing the middle of the flap down until it 
becomes free.  You might risk breaking the flap, but you could figure 
out if the spring is there or not, and it is usually pretty easy to 
remove and put that flap back into place.
>>> How are these drives ?  Seems like a very compact drive.
>>> Specs show a slower transfer rate vs the full size DLT8000.
>>>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> Not too bad, we have probably a dozen of them in service, and have had 
>> some failures, but i think i can probably attribute all of the failures 
>> to dirty air (dust, smoke, etc.).  I've also taken two of those drives 
>> apart to fix them in the past.  (I'm not expert though, i only have a 
>> 50% success rate. :) )
>>   
>>     
>
> What failure do you tend to see ?
>
> If you have any failed units, do you have a spring/etc you could spare ????
>
> I'm quite worried a small metal spring may be inside this thing 
> somewhere  :-(
>   
>
Usually the failure has been with the read/write heads.  The drive will 
start to get errors reading and writing data on the tape, and before too 
long it will progress to not being able to read and write data at all.  
Like i said though, some of these drives are in pretty dusty/dirty/smoky 
areas, and the failures are about in line with what we have seen from 
other tape drives in the same environments.  In the case of the one i 
took apart and was able to repair, iirc, it had a bad tape and removed 
it from the drive by taking the drive apart, the drive itself didn't 
even have a problem.

I think i just pitched one of those drives a couple of weeks ago, so i 
don't think i do have one.  I can look around some though, and if we 
have another one come up, I'll let you know.

    -Dan