[Info-vax] HP Surestore DAT24 firmware download?

[smithfarm]

> Have you had a look inside the drive? In days gone by, a cotton swab
> moistened with isopropyl alcohol or similar used to be recommended to
> clean tape drives. It often is NOT recommended for modern drives but
> what have you got to lose?

 From the document you cited:

IMPORTANT: Do not use alcohol or cleaning solution to clean DAT drive
read/write heads. To avoid damaging a DAT drive, do not clean
read/write heads with a cotton swab. Fibers from a cotton swab
can cause permanent damage to the head. Only the cleaning
cartridge must be used to clean the heads.

> While looking for details of cleaning procedures just now, I found a
> 35-page vintage-1996 35 PDF titled "DAT Troubleshooting Guide" at:
> http://www.dectrader.com/docs/set2/TURBO_DAT_TROUBLESHOOTING_GUIDE.pdf

Thanks - I'm reading it now.

> It looks like a Compaq rather than DEC manual, the drives it refers to
> don't include Sony, the applications it references are PC-centric
> (Backup Exec etc), but you never know, some of the info might be
> transferable.

I think they will apply to my TLZ07L and possibly to this drive as well 
(HP Surestore DAT 24).

Unfortunately, the drive's performance appears to be degrading instead 
of improving. It now produces I/O errors right from the beginning of any 
read attempt, or claims that the tape is write-protected, when it isn't.

> There seems to be quite a lot of detail in here, including the meaning
> of some of the sense codes which the drive may return on error
> (hopefully these aren't vendor-specific, but...).
>
> [I've got a DAT drive on a shelf gathering dust somewhere and would
> one day like it to work again, hence my interest]

Thanks, and hope you have better luck with yours.

Nathan