[Nottingham] Tape Backup failure

[Graeme Fowler]

On Tue, 8 Jun 2004, David Wolfson wrote:
> ----error mail-----
> 
> tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
> tar (child): /dev/st0: Cannot open: Read-only file system
> tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
> /bin/backup: line 13: 28012 Broken pipe             tar -czf /dev/st0 /home

OK, so we know the tape is writable. Or do we? :)

This usually shows (in my experience) that the drive is dying or dead. Can you 
read anything from it?

Chuck a tape in which you *know* has data on, rewind it and do a "tar tvzf 
/dev/st0". If you get a result it could be that someone's changed a jumper or 
driver setting on the drive, rendering it read-only.
If you get a similar nonsensical error, buy yourself a new drive.

Graeme