scsi tape problems -- need help ASAP

[sonun]

I have this tape library which has two devices on of which is the tape drive, /dev/st0.
Now, when I,
'#mt -f /dev/st0 status'
when there is no tape in the drive, I get
SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=-1, block number=-1, partition=0.
Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x0 (default).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (50000):
DR_OPEN IM_REP_EN

and when I do the same with a tape in the drive, I get,
SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=-1, block number=-1, partition=0.
Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x0 (default).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (10000):
IM_REP_EN

Assuming that everything is ok, whenI try to do a tar,
'#tar -cvf /dev/st0 /root/arkeia/'
I get,
tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
root/arkeia/
root/arkeia/arkeia-client-4.2.17-2.i386.rpm
tar: /dev/st0: Wrote only 0 of 10240 bytes
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

and when I,
'#tar -xvf /dev/st0 /root/arkeia/'
I get,
tar: /dev/st0: Cannot read: Input/output error
tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

Been very unsuccesful in attempts to set this right.
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee advise.
Thanks.

 

[KenCunningham]

Sounds suspiciously like a hardware problem, I'm afraid. The only other thing which springs to mind is the possibility that the rpm is too large for tar to cope with. I think (despite protestations to the contrary) that tar has a problem with files > 2Gb. Does mt -f /dev/st0 rewind report any error?

Not much help, I'm afraid, but if you've a tame engineer, I'd get them on the case.