Onstream USB30 Malfunction

[kford]

I have an onstream USB30 running on a machine with WinXP. It worked great for 6 months and then suddenly the drive no longer recognizes my tapes. I get the message "not mounted" or "no tape" when using 1Safe Express. When I put a tape in the drive it spends for a while and then spits it back out. I bought new tapes with no luck. I even bought a new drive, reinstalled everything, but I get the same results. One apparent problem I have noticed is that when I connect the USB cable during a new install, I get the Add New Hardware Wizard only once instead of twice as indicated in the installation manual. Apparently the USB cable driver is not installing like it should be. What can I do to fix this problem?

 

[gwootton]

Alright, a couple of things...If the USB driver was not loading properly, the 1Safe software wouldn't find the drive. There should be 2 listings for this drive in the device manager, under IDE controllers you should have a freecom device, and then USB30 under tape drives. If it says not mounted or no tape that means the software is finding the drive. since you are using xp, here is what i would suggest. uninstall the echo software, and try with the sc2k drivers and ntbackup. This can ensure it's not a software problem. also, since this is a usb30, you may want to try inserting a tape with the drive disconnected to see whether the tape gets kicked out or not, to verify the drivers loading mechanism or head is not defective.
Thanks,
Greg

 

[kford]

I have unsuccessfully tried to install the sc2k driver. After I uninstall the Echo software and plug the tape drive in, wxp recognizes the tape drive as a Freecom USB device initially and automatically installs the Freecom Cable USB driver. It then recognizes the drive as a Onstream DI-30, not as a USB30. If I check the DI-30 driver details, it has the sc3k driver listed. However, when I look under my computer, there is no listing for the tape drive. What should I do now?

 

[gwootton]

kford, when using the sc2k driver, you don't get a drive letter in my computer, that is only with the echo software. You have to access it using the ntbackup. It will list as mini-qic device. Just use that as the destination and back up using NTBackup. Thanks, Greg.

 

[kford]

After I select the mini-qic device, I get an error message stating Required Media Missing. There is no free media with the selected type. Also, anytime I place a tape in the drive, it spins for about 5 min and then gets ejected. Now what should I do?
Thanks

 

[gwootton]

kford, disconnect the drive from the computer so it's only getting power and see whether it still does that or whether it takes it in. There may be a physical problem with the drive itself. The reason it's giving you that error is because the tape is not mounting. Since you were getting this same error with Echo, it's more than likely going to be an issue where the drive needs to be replaced.
Thanks, Greg

 

[kford]

Greg, This is my second drive. I replaced my first drive because of identical problems. This one has never worked. Both drives eject the tape after spinning for about 5 min.

 

[gwootton]

kford, does it do the same thing when the drive is disconnected from the system? Maybe it is a USB problem, try a different port. I'm trying to think of other things that could be causing something like this with 2 different driver settings. Assuming it is not the drive or the software, it would have to be something with the USB drivers, the USB ports themselves or some other hardware issue with the system, or the cable...after that, their is nothing else talking to the drive. This may seem like a longshot, but maybe try updating the ASPI layers on your system, because the drive and the system communicate through those also...

http://www.adaptec.com

-> downloads -> SCSI software -> windows ASPI package. Let me know! Greg.

 

[kford]

Greg, It does the same thing when it is not attached to the system. It spins for a minute or two and spits out the tape.

 

[gwootton]

kford, either the tape or the drive is the problem. it can't read the tape either b/c it's not pulling it in all the way or because the tape is defective. if it happens with all tapes, the drive is defective. Thanks, Greg

 

[wezside]

I'm having a similar problem with my Onstream 30GB IDE drive.

The drive worked fine for over a year, then suddenly it started spitting tapes out. My firmware is up-to-date, I have cleaned the drive with an Onstream cleaning cartridge, I have tried several tapes (brand new ones too), I have removed all the software and I have disconnected from the PC, but it still spits tapes out after reading them for a couple of minutes.

I think there must be a hardware problem inside the drive. The thing is, how can we go about getting these drives repaired now that Onstream are gone?

Any help appreciated.

 

[gwootton]

wezside, There is nothing set up to repair them. Sorry, Greg.

 

[kford]

I am giving up. After two drives and 4 tapes (plus one cleaning tape), nothing works anymore. Could be one of the reasons that Onstream is out of business. I switching to recordable DVD.