TZ8x DLT III cartridge - torn leader

On 02/09/2020 11:11, Antonio Carlini wrote: I thought I should follow up with further information, so as not to pollute the archives with mis-information. The one tape unit that I've never used does indeed have a missing leader. As for the others, they had all snapped the tape (from the cartridge) quite some way into the tape. So the leader was attached to the tape, which then surrounded it on the rear spool. I missed that because I didn't know what I was looking for. Once I realised what had happened I gently started to unwind the rear spool enough that I could grab the tape and then I basically pulled it all through (many metres of it) until I reached the tape leader. The tape was discarded and the leader reattached to the hook. That itself proved to be a bit fiddly the first time I did it. I found that to get the drive to POST properly I had to manually rotate the rear spool just enough to have the tape leader pull back gently on the hook. I also had a stuck tape. That required me to use the screw underneath the centre of the inserted cartridge to rewind the tape back into the cartridge. Once I'd rewound all of it the tape leader came into view. It then detached from the tape. I don't remember if I had to do that manually or not. Similarly I may have reattached it to the hook manually. There's a lever to the side of the cartridge that you gently move to allow the tape to be released by lifting the normal handle. Antonio -- Antonio Carlini antonio at acarlini.com