[Info-vax] DLT8000 drive question

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

Rich Jordan <jordan at ccs4vms.com> wrote:
> I've never used or seen a loader for DLT drives in person and I have a
> customer with a question.  They picked up a couple of "loader ready"
> HP DLT8000 drives, mounted on skids with the back panels, as part of a
> bulk surplus hardware load.  The drives appear new/unused but they're
> in another state so I can't look at them.  That customer doesn't have
> (or want) a loader but the drives themselves would be nice to put into
> service.

I have an LTO-1 drive that I believe was for a loader.  It doesn't
have the usual front panel.
 
> Can these drives be pulled from their skids/panels and used as
> standalone drives, either in a compatible enclosure or system bay,
> using normal power and SCSI cables?  Does the lack of a bezel/lever
> (lights?  Eject button???) compromise their usability?

The linux eject command seems to work with my LTO drive.
Interestingly, it doesn't work with a similar drive that does
have a front panel eject button.  It seems that there is a 
SCSI eject command.  (I presume your DLT is SCSI.)  
Does VMS have an EJECT command, or a way to send the SCSI
EJECT command to a drive?

I have a used DLT8000 drive that I bought from an AS-IS sale.
The tape spool was full, though no cartridge was in the drive.
I removed all the tape and threaded the leader back through
the load path, but I haven't tried it yet.  It does have
the front bezel, though.

-- glen