That's what I suspected but, wasn't sure. I'll get some so that I'll have a system backup. Any idea how much data fits on one? One of the systems is configured with 4 X 8MB of memory. The other has 1 X 32 MB. I also have 8 additional 8MB modules that were pulled from the system with the bad CPU. Haven't had a chance to check them out yet. Between the two system (and spares), I have 6 HPIB interface cards, 10 I/O MUX cards, 9 hard drives, 2 LAN cards, and 2 optical interface cards. We also found a short rack of hard drives at the junk dealers place but, I didn't get them. I noticed that they had the fibre connectors but, at the time didn't realize the computers had fibre interfaces :-( I might go back later and get the rack. If it's still there (Joe?) Jeesh... I'm not even sure what versions are installed. One system hadn't been booted since 1996 the other hadn't been booted since 1994 so, the OS isn't exactly current. I've got the install CDs for HP-UX 10.20 Series 800 but am having trouble with the CD-ROM. Once I get the OS reinstalled, it should be a lot easier to diagnose the tape drive problem. I tried using some of the existing devices (ioscan -fn) but that didn't work. It looks like the system is using the driver "tape1". Not sure if that's correct or not? I also tried creating special files (mksf -H 52.0 /dev/...whatever...) with a variety of parameters but, just haven't hit the right combo yet. When I try to write to the tape, the drive displays "Write, Read, Write, Read, blah, blah...). Then the console says something like "Write error in tape header...). I don't believe it wrote any data but, I do think the setup is pretty close. At this point, I'm suspicious of the driver. Thanks, Steve Roberson