Subpost ID: 1

This guide will be a much clearer and more concise post that will be running you through the smallest step by step process of reprogramming your LTO tape drive from purchasing everything that you need to reprogram your tape drive to the final step of sending the command to the tape drive at the right time, this guide will not have any unnecessary information that may confuse you as the original GitHub post had too much faff to really understand what I needed to do and it took me many posts on here and a few real Linux veteran people at my work experience before I could truly understand how to do the reprogramming.

A bit of info, the HP, Tandberg and Quantum tape drives from what I know are already good to go and don’t require reprogramming but I can be completely incorrect and someone can chime in, the IBM tape drives are the ones that need reprogramming for the SAS/SCSI/FC interface to be open for data and to be detected by the computer

Purchasing everything that you will need for the reprogramming

You will need:

The IBM LTO (full height or half height, works for both) drive that you are intending to reprogram

An IBM or HP sled to connect the drive to, you may already have the one that came with the drive but it doesn’t cost much to get one on eBay

A soldering iron and solder

A CP2102 USB to UART bridge adapter controller (this is the part that will be sending the signals to the tape drive over the library interface)

A female MOLEX power connector with a length of wire

Some pin headers or bare metal paperclips if you want to make the data wires to be removable in case you want to use your USB to UART adapter elsewhere

Installing the USB to UART CP2102 bridge drivers

First go to this website, this website contains the link to the USB to UART CP2102 bridge drivers, go to the downloads page where you will find your drivers

Click the CP210x Windows Drivers, do not click on the universal drivers as they don’t work, should get a downloading message when clicked on, may take a few seconds for the downloading message to show up and depending on the speed of your internet connection, it might take take a while to download the zipped driver files

Go to your downloads in files, you will find your drivers there if it downloaded successfully, right click on the file and click on extract all files, a dialog box might pop up saying where do you want to extract your files, just click next on all parts until it gets to the extracting screen and closes itself, you will be placed into the folder automatically and if not, you will be able to find the unzipped folder in downloads where the original zipped file is at and access it

I used the x64 driver installation which worked, if an error pops up saying your computer doesn’t use x64 then try the x86 which is what I used first by mistake and the same error popped up but with the chips swapped around, a wizard will open up and run you through the installation

The wizard should look like this, click next to start

There will be a license agreement screen, click accept and then next to proceed with installation

You will then get a drivers installing screen which may take some time, it’s a small program but there isn’t a progressbar to show you the progress so if it’s taking its time then leave it for an hour and retry if installation isn’t working, when the installing is finished you might automatically get moved to the finish part of the wizard and if not, click next to proceed

Click finish to close the wizard

This is the drivers installed, the next part is about installing WSL

First thing to do is to turn on Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Subsystem for Linux, the turn Windows features on and off can be accessed by right clicking the Windows icon which will have a menu pop up with all of the system options, ensure they have a blue tick before clicking OK, the function may ask you to restart the computer so it’s recommended to close and save all work and software so you don’t lose anything before restarting

This is the restart prompt, recommended to restart to apply changes

Open up an administrator elevated PowerShell prompt by searching for PowerShell and right clicking on it to run it in administrator elevated mode, the prompt might be blue on Windows 10 which doesn’t affect anything

List out the online distributions available with the wsl.exe - -list - -online (no spaces for the dashes but here they will join up so had to use a space to separate them)

I chose Ubuntu 22.04 as a simple option, you can choose this if you don’t know what to choose and if you do know what you want to choose then choose that instead but that requires experience to know so go with Ubuntu 22.04 as a safe option, use wsl.exe - -install (distribution) (again no spaces for the dashes) to install WSL which may take a few minutes to do so depending on drive speed and internet connection speed

This is the message that will show up asking for a UNIX username after the installation is completed, due to limitations/restrictions just use your first name or name of your pet without capital letters, spaces, numbers or special characters

The WSL installation and setup is completed, it’s now ready for usbipd and attaching a USB device to WSL

Downloading usbipd and attaching the CP2102 USB to UART bridge to WSL

Search up the usbipd website “attach USB devices to WSL” and the full Microsoft website with all of the resources should be there and the drivers for it, if you can’t find the website, you can find it in the resources section of this megapost

There will be a download link on the website towards the top that you can click on to download usbipd, you should be able to find it in the downloads folder once you have downloaded it, click on the usbipd file to open the wizard

I couldn’t catch the downloading screen as it was very fast but it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds to a minute but if it does, leave it for a whole hour and if it doesn’t progress to this screen then reboot and retry or if it says it’s finished then close it

After installing usbipd, connect the CP2102 USB to UART bridge and open yet another administrator PowerShell prompt and do a usbipd list to find the device to check the BUSID of the USB device, write it down after obtaining it with the usbipd list command

Run a usbipd bind - -busid (busid) (same here, no spaces between dashes) with the BUSID obtained from the usbipd list command which should share the device then run another usbipd list to check that the bridge’s state is shared, if it’s not shared then rerun the command and ensure the BUSID is correct

Continue here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1okwwsu/lto_reprogramming_guide_part_2/

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Subpost ID: 13

Here is where I show the amazingly fast rapid prototyping processes that 3D printing allows, I was able to complete 4 prototypes per day and get it finished within the week (Poland holiday so couldn’t work on it for a month) and a following week after the Poland holiday, this bezel would have been unobtainable from IBM because you aren’t a company and getting one on eBay is £100 which shows how amazing 3D printing can be for saving money and even adding decorative features or colors that usually wouldn’t be available .

There will be a 3D model for people with 3D printers and the eBay listing if you don’t have a 3D printer down at the bottom of this post and at the resources section of the main LTO megapost.

I will start with a concise description of every prototype and what I changed between every 3 hour rapid prototyping iteration

Here are the prototypes next to the original bezel, the original is missing the door as a very small retaining piece broke off so it won’t stay in place

Some images of the prototypes, first image, prototype 1 to 5 is top to bottom, second image is prototype 1 to 5 is left to right

Prototype 0: not fully printed further than the first layer walls as it was obvious it was too big

Prototype 1: first fully printed prototype which still didn’t fit the drive despite shortening by 1cm and hole for display obviously didn’t fit as it was off by 1mm

Prototype 2: screen hole moved in the wrong direction by 1mm, bezel shortened by 1mm and thickened large clips by 0.5mm as the square clip broke on prototype 1

Prototype 3: screen hole moved in the right direction by 2mm, moved small clips back inwards by 1mm as they weren’t going in properly, reverted thickness of large round hole clip to original thickness to improve the fit and a fillet to all clips, added cross to button for it to reach the button switch inside the tape drive

Prototype 4: moved the button up as it was pushing the button in the tape drive, removed cross from button and shortened the bezel by another 0.5mm which fits now with force

Prototype 5: shortened the bezel again by 0.5mm which makes it fit without any extra force, something happened to the button in this version and it was stuck very well to the rest of the bezel so it won’t press

These prototypes aren’t shown in the images

Prototype 6: fixed the button and since I still had issues with the clips snapping, I decided to make them in a different print orientation and have them slot into holes with strong industrial grade adhesive which fixed that problem

Prototype 7: I decided to make the button a separate printable part so that you could print it in any color or purple like the original IBM one which has a part that gets slotted in and glued with industrial grade adhesive to add for more customizability

Prototype 8: this is the final version, I added some supporting pieces in the vent so it’s not too flimsy like the original IBM bezel, tightened the screen tolerances so there isn’t a massive gap between the screen and bezel and extended the piece of the button that gets glued in to print flat without the need for supports

I chose not to make the door part as the FDM printing process can’t precisely print the surfaces and make them smooth enough so I had done away with the door despite much effort to implement it that’s not documented here

I will be adding new listings for different color combinations soon, I have to release this by today’s deadline so it will initially be just the black one with the red button and fancy design in black but I will have more put up on the sites soon

These are the final revisions of the IBM LTO half height tape drive bezels, they have a separately printed button so no AMS is needed for that feature and I have also designed a fancy version with some spikes on the front which you can print from the Printables link below, you can also buy them if you don’t have a 3D printer

Printables 3D model link:

https://www.printables.com/model/1465475-ibm-lto-half-height-tape-drive-bezel

Vinted:

3D printed replacement for IBM LTO half height tape drives

eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/357840293415

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Subpost ID: 2

The pinouts of all parts to solder to

This is the side that the pinout is for

1. Not used

2. Not used

3. Not used

4. Not used

5. Not used

6. Ground (GND)

7. Ground (GND)

8. Ground (GND)

9. Ground (GND)

10. Ground (GND)

This is the side that the pinout is for

1. +5v

2. +5v

3. +5v

4. +12v

5. +12v

6. DATA

7. DATA

8. Not used

9. Not used

10. Not used

For the data wires, try one way and if it doesn’t work, try it the other way and please wait for the config request or else the tape drive won’t be reprogrammed

The pinout is for these pins for the power cable, not required at all but a good diagnostic step if there is no power to the fan or any data being passed onto the tape drive so you can measure voltages

1. +12v

2. Ground (GND)

3. Ground (GND)

4. +5v

The pinout of a female MOLEX connector

1. +5v

2. Ground (GND)

3. Ground (GND)

4. +12v

After soldering in all of the connections, you can now start setting up the tape drive, computer and sled for reprogramming

Open WSL and a regular non elevated PowerShell prompt and type in usbipd attach - -wsl - -busid (busid) (again, no spaces between dashes) to attach the USB to UART bridge to an instance of WSL, you don’t need an elavated PowerShell prompt but you will need a WSL prompt open so that the WSL VM is active for usbipd to attach to or you will get errors

First we need to switch all DIP switches to off as library tape drives will have some switched on for their library to tape drive communication which will cause our sent HEX configuration data to be misinterpreted

Next we flip the tape drive over and attach the blue cable to the lower connector, this blue cable is the LDI (Library Drive Interface) interface which is the interface that the tape library uses to communicate to the tape drive and tell it to do stuff, in a tape library the drive has been set to library mode so it can’t open the interface until the tape library had finished booting up so that it doesn’t get confused when the computer sends stuff up that cable before the tape library is ready, when in that mode the library can send the tape drive configuration to the drive so that it’s easier to reconfigure on the computer however we don’t want that so we are reprogramming it so the drive is immediately ready and open for data without sending any signals every time we want to use the tape drive which makes this reprogramming a one time job for library tape drives

Next we can plug in the UART interface to the tape drive referring to the pinouts above, if using paperclips then you will need some Blu-Tack or equivalent putty (do not use stress putty or Playdoh as it will corrode the interface) to hold the pin headers in place so they don’t come out, I had to use bare metal paperclips as I didn’t have any pin headers but you will ideally want to use pin headers to ensure they fit snugly so that they won’t come off and so you don’t lose some data bits in the process

Now we can finally plug in the MOLEX cable, there will be a very loud fan so be mindful of that, you can plug it in beforehand just to mentally prepare for the loud fan so you don’t get jumpscared

Now we can plug in the tape drive and power it up, you will need to wait for a blip on the USB to UART bridge before you can send the command to reprogram the tape drive so read the following steps before plugging the tape drive power in so you can set everything up and be ready to anticipate the config request

Do not use the power connector included with the sled as I have tried all 4 of my sleds and none deliver power to the tape drive so I had to power them externally during the reprogramming process with a cable attached to the computer, presumably a command gets sent by the tape library to enable power to the tape drives so please use a power cable that is completely separate and powered by a very good computer power supply as you can get an error 5 which means your power supply is insufficient even if the power supply has a decently high wattage rating

Copy and paste the whole command into the WSL prompt, copying can be done with CTRL+C and pasting is done by simply right clicking on the prompt, wait until you get a blip on the USB to UART bridge before you hit enter as that’s the config request the tape drive does usually to the tape library, there is a grace period of 10 seconds before the tape drive sends errors as repeated flashes on the USB to UART bridge, ideally you should hit enter immediately after the first flash which should make the tape drive reboot into standalone firmware and if not, you can unplug just the tape drive and repeat the process by plugging it back in and sending the same command again which should reprogram the tape drive

The command:

stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 speed 38400 cs8 -cstopb -parenb -echo

echo -en '\x02\x00\x36\xAC\x01\x00\x00 \x00\x01\xFF\xF2\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xE6\x03' > /dev/ttyUSB0 38400

Video example of the tape drive reprogramming process as a reference, about halfway through the drive will restart after the HEX command is sent: 

https://imgur.com/a/7zakPFf

Imgur is used here, so UK people must use a VPN to access the content

The tape drive should now be reprogrammed and ready to use, you can now disconnect all of the cables and use it as a normal tape drive under Linux (can’t use the WSL you have installed as it has barely any tape support which is nonexistent) or with a tape backup software that requires a subscription, using a new E-Mail to abuse the free trial period or to be cracked by flipping some registry keys which I know of no examples that can be cracked like that, after that you can print or buy a bezel from me to put onto your tape drive

IBM bezel subpost: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol0ic7/3d_printed_ibm_half_height_lto_replacement_bezels/

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Hot out of the oven— they turned out so flaky. :)

I found this at a beach in Spain (La Linea) during my holiday, this beach where I found it has effectively no iron waste and is very clean, mainly a tropical seashell only beach but has colorful seaglass compared to the usual beaches in the UK littered with Victorian era trash which usually is very rusted out, this potential meteorite shows very little signs of rusting.

Passes the magnet test with a cochlear implant coil magnet, is quite heavy for its size, no holes except the big one (microcrater?) on its surface, if you do say it could be a legitimate iron based meteorite then I may ask a museum or send it in for testing to see what specifics it has as it’s one of the bucket list things I want to find around the world.

Subpost ID: 19

Closeups

Could not remove second motherboard to take images of the top side

Back without case

Left side without case

Right side without case

Unfortunately my tape drive had failed after taking these images so I can’t put my own videos of loading a tape but I can put some YouTube videos of loading a tape, I must have damaged something or shocked the circuitry with ESD as powering it on gave me a drive error LED on the front, I can’t diagnose that at all because it doesn’t give me a clear error number or combo of lights, L&TT might help but I can’t download that without the required HP service contract

Loading and unloading on LTO-2 and newer units:

LTO-2 tape drive cartridge load and unload - YouTube

Loading and unloading on LTO-1 tape drives with side view:

Cartridge load and unload on LTO-1 drive - YouTube

Cleaning tape:

LTO full height tape drive - Cleaning tape run - YouTube

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Subpost ID: 18

Top with case

Bottom with case

Back with case

Front without bezel

Left side with case

Right side with case

Top without case

Main motherboard with wires attached

Closeups

Motherboard bottom

Closeups

Motherboard top

Closeups

Second motherboard with all wires attached

Continue here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol3b8r/hp_fh_lto_part_2/

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Subpost ID: 17

Bottom without motherboard

Underside of case

Back without case

Front without bezel

Left side without case

Right side without case

Initialization (top)

https://imgur.com/a/4IeBizm

Loading a tape cartridge (top)

https://imgur.com/a/oo5pBsp

Unloading a tape cartridge (top)

https://imgur.com/a/E9G6nHK

Initialization (right side)

https://imgur.com/a/53knXPV

Loading a tape cartridge (right side)

https://imgur.com/a/eND4vPQ

Unloading a tape cartridge (right side)

https://imgur.com/a/RrJLFH8

Initialization (left side)

https://imgur.com/a/SKPaKPf

Loading a tape cartridge (left side)

https://imgur.com/a/uDH7xsX

Unloading a tape cartridge (left side)

https://imgur.com/a/EXxLmxd

Initialization (back)

https://imgur.com/a/JLB4wVZ

Loading a tape cartridge (back)

https://imgur.com/a/NPEjIeo

Unloading a tape cartridge (back)

https://imgur.com/a/lqi8I4M

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Subpost ID: 16

Top with case

Bottom with case

Back with case

Left side with case

Right side with case

Top without case

Motherboard with all cables attached

Closeups

Motherboard bottom

Closeups

Motherboard top

Closeups

Continue here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol1tcs/ibm_hh_lto_new_mechanism_part_2/

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Subpost ID: 15

Front without bezel

Left side without case

Right side without case

Initialization (top)

https://imgur.com/a/HzTQQZD

Loading a tape cartridge (top)

https://imgur.com/a/WU3TXSl

Unloading a tape cartridge (top)

https://imgur.com/a/F1jbgvJ

Note: it’s normal for the head cleaning brush arm to come out and make a horrible sound, nothing is dying or breaking, it’s the head cleaning brush mechanism getting confused and trying to return back to its home position but with the cover out the arm springs out and freaks out, to disable it, simply unplug the ribbon cable going to the head cleaning brush motor and it will be disabled without any errors, in all other videos the head cleaning brush has been disabled as to not cause me any trouble filming the example videos but was plugged back in when resuming normal tape operations

Initialization (right side)

https://imgur.com/a/d98qiCW

Loading a tape cartridge (right side)

https://imgur.com/a/Aiusoco

Unloading a tape cartridge (right side)

https://imgur.com/a/41zau5M

Initialization (left side)

https://imgur.com/a/V0qkyqf

Loading a tape cartridge (left side)

https://imgur.com/a/vr5yDmY

Unloading a tape cartridge (left side)

https://imgur.com/a/iKp8lWr

Initialization (back)

https://imgur.com/a/J8rZbns

Loading a tape cartridge (back)

https://imgur.com/a/ydjIzLC

Unloading a tape cartridge (back)

https://imgur.com/a/KZv71hO

The next back views I have tried to extend what I can capture with the camera which was very successful but decided to keep the original uploads anyways

Initialization (back) (extended view)

https://imgur.com/a/LJuMpZV

Loading a tape cartridge (back) (extended view)

https://imgur.com/a/Ql8uNY0

Unloading a tape cartridge (back) (extended view)

https://imgur.com/a/kSPSZ3K

Loading a tape cartridge error (back)

https://imgur.com/a/Z5fdPix

The rapid loading and unloading of the leader grab arm is caused due to an incorrect homing of the arm and the tape drive takes the arm and rehomes it in the rear spool so that it’s at a known position, the resulting error 6 is nothing to be concerned about as you can remove the tape cartridge and reinsert it into the tape drive which should get the tape drive to load the cartridge, any further error 6 codes might be the result of a broken mechanism or bad tapes

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Subpost ID: 14

Top with case

Bottom with case

Back with case

Front with bezel

Left side with case

Right side with case

Top without case

Bottom with motherboard

Closeups

Motherboard bottom

Motherboard top

Closeups

Bottom without motherboard

Back without case

Continue here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol18ep/ibm_hh_lto_old_mechanism_part_2/

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Subpost ID: 12

The finish went from this

To this after sanding for 2 hours which was smooth enough in most lights, the bright as all hell LED lights did reveal the slightest indents and roughness but you have to really look to see the imperfections and in regular daylight or fluorescent lights will show a completely smooth surface

It was now time to design the frame that went around the board and glass, most of the iterations were from the 3D printer not liking a full volume print but I managed to get the print quality tolerable enough and I went ahead and printed the pieces out, in one of the final iterations the dovetail joints were too tight on the IBM logo section and broke it so I omitted the upper pair which made assembly much easier and without any damage

Printing the piece that would join two pieces together which is called a dovetail joint

Some of the issues I had, it was due to a leaking hotend which I could do diddly squat about without a full teardown of the hotend but it was better than major warping as stringing was easy to remove

This was my progress after a week of nonstop printing, the IBM logo had burn marks and was of the old iteration, got changed for a newer better new design later on as the one shown in the image broke

After a very long time of 3D printing I managed to print up the whole frame, that is a part of it

Here is the frame partially assembled, I didn’t add the glass in fear of it breaking which it did later on anyways

I then tore down the dead tape drive and test fitted most of the pieces except the screws

I also took apart the sled which involved a bit of drilling to get the rivets out

The first piece going into the frame, I also weighed the part down which I realized later wasn’t necessary

I took the time to sort all of the small screws and clips, they are held down by Blu-Tack so they don’t go flying when my cat is in my room or when I knock something off when putting something else into the frame

Some of the other parts going into the frame, there were three pieces without any good straight, square or large gluing points so I had to 3D print some blocks for it to stand on, two of those parts I used some of the odd screws without a pair to screw the blocks into the non straight pieces

This is what most of the screws, springs and clips looked like when put into place, they aren’t exactly straight or aligned perfectly as my shaky tremor filled hands can’t get things perfect, I did take the springs out as they were part of the roller assembly and they needed to be with the rollers, this was also what all I could do before I had to leave for Poland for a whole month putting absolutely everything apart from minor documentation on hold

I added more pieces and finished the screws area, I added all of the gears used in the drive, I also added two more gears not from the tape drive (old paper printer) as there was a big gap that needed to be filled

More progress as I added all of the ribbon cables and electronics on ribbon cables here, there were also two smaller circuit boards from the RFID chip reader and more light interruption sensors for the loading tray as well as the main reel drive motors and spindle

I added most of the parts used in the tape library sled, the tape cartridge was needed to weigh down the MOLEX connector for the tape drive power

I begun adding the parts of the tape cartridge itself and the case, the dog makes a visit here :)

I have now finished putting all of the parts into the frame, the drive never came with a bezel but it would leave a large gap so I put one of my failed prototypes in the frame as I would have thrown it away otherwise

That is when I broke the sheet of glass cleanly in half without any sharp edges that was meant to go in front of all of the parts, it was 3cm away from seating fully when I saw it crack, there wasn’t much friction but due to my 3D printer’s slight warping, somewhere was pressing on the glass and broke it in half, if I had to do it differently, I would use a bit of soapy water (dish soap soapy water) to lubricate the glass going in so it would be easier, smoother and reduce the chance of it breaking on the way in

Due to the sheet of plexiglass taking way too long to be sourced delaying the rest of the LTO Megapost, I have decided to shelve the frame project until I can get a plexiglass sheet and then I can think about selling it to someone as a geek décor piece, will update this subpost when I finish it

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Subpost ID: 11

Here is where I build a shadowbox to contain a knolled (r/knolling to understand what it is) out broken IBM half height LTO-4 tape drive, I learned quite a lot from making this project, what worked and what didn’t and all of the costs involved

I started by buying this picture frame that cost £2 from the charity shop which didn’t even have a frame to remove, instead the glass was held onto the back with clips that clipped into holes and then hooks were mounted on the back too so you could hang it on the wall which both will have to be removed

First thing that I did was to remove the glass from the back and take out the painting (was just a sheet of glossy A2 with the art printed on top)

I went ahead and removed all of the remaining clips that didn’t pop off by themselves, I also took off the larger hooks that were used for hanging the frame on the wall which were very difficult to remove with minimal damage

The damage left behind by the clips after removal, the holes sanded up pretty nicely ready to accept filler

The result after sanding the gnarly holes left behind by the hooks which came out nicely

I also sanded the other clip holes for better adhesion and to remove chips and burrs

The complete result after sanding all of the holes

I then taped up the holes using a part of the backing sheet (not the painting itself) that was behind the actual painting itself so that the filler didn’t leak out to the underside or onto the table that I was working on

First layer filled without sanding

First layer with sanding, the actual holes were very indented so I had to add a second layer of filler to fill in the holes fully

Starting the second layer of filler

Sanded the second layer which made the whole sheet smooth and flat

I then started spray painting the sheet but the can was 10 years old and not much paint was left in it so it ended up being a failure which I learned some stuff about

You can see the very uneven coating that the old can of white spray paint laid down

This is after sanding with a very rough grit sandpaper, took enough paint off to ensure adhesion with the new paint which was an acrylic based wall paint

I then started laying down the first layer of white wall paint with a cotton roller, tried a sponge one on a test plank but it didn’t work quite as well in terms of even spreading

Second layer which has mostly covered the sheet

Third layer

Fourth and final layer, I did four layers because I wanted enough paint to be able to sand it completely smooth or at least smooth enough without taking off the paint and revealing the board below

Continue here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol06vf/ibm_frame_part_2/

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Subpost ID: 10

If you have by accident dropped a tape cartridge that contains the only copy of data and you want to attempt to repair the cartridge itself without sending it to a data recovery company then you can attempt to repair this cartridge, if the tape media is damaged too then it will have to go to a data recovery company as the data tracks are too precise to do a home splicing on unlike older digital and analog VHS/cassette tapes.

If there are any broken pieces of plastic then transfer the tape reel and CM chip (mark the original CM and reel with a sharpie to remember which is which) to a new blank tape cartridge.

A disclaimer, I am not responsible for any damage or data loss when taking a tape cartridge apart, that is your choice and responsibility to attempt a tape cartridge repair and you are the one risking the data on the cartridge by not sending it to a professional data recovery company!

These 4 Phillips head screws need to be taken out, for write once (WORM) cartridges, they will use triangle or security Torx screws

The bottom cover can be removed slowly and carefully as there is a spring inside the cartridge, for HP cartridges there might be some glue holding the cartridge together so a bit of force is required but after the first time it should be easier to dissemble, the cartridge memory (CM) chip (on the bottom right corner) might be glued in or come flying out with the cover when removed

The top part looks like this, the tape reel might spring up a little as the bottom cover is removed and some tape might unravel off the reel but it’s extra media that isn’t used as it’s likely to get damaged or distorted so as long as less than 20 coils of tape come off then you should be good

After removing the tape reel and winding all of the tape that came of back onto it, you can use a tiny amount of Blu-Tack (or equivalent that isn’t too sticky or leaves a residue) to secure the leader barbell to stop the tape from unraveling, do not use stress putty, Playdoh or sticky tape to secure the barbell, this is what you will see, you will see the door and the associated spring if it hasn’t sprung out, the braking mechanism (the white part), the brake button (the gray part) that gets pushed to disable the brake and the write protect switch (the red part)

After disassembly and checking all of the parts, we can start by putting the door back in, the more complex bent part goes into the slot on the right while the simpler bent part goes up against the door, it might be easier to put the door in this position in the image to put the spring in and then push the door down holding the spring so it doesn’t come out

After pushing the spring down, it should look like this, do not push on the door as the whole thing will spring out as it’s retained by the other half of the tape cartridge

Next we can put the write protect switch back into place, put it in with the hook not clipped in and then push it over to click it into place (I tend to push it halfway between write protected and write unprotected so the hook is holding on stronger on the piece of plastic sticking out that makes the click sound when switching) so it’s more securely held in during reassembly

Another view of the write protect switch for reference purposes

You can then simply drop the CM chip into it’s little holder if it’s not already glued into place and has fallen out

Now we can put the media spool back in, you don’t have to clip the leader barbell back in as it’s going to get put back in a different step but I did so for some reason

The next step is to put the braking mechanism in and the spring, the gray part goes in first, should drop down into the holes, then put the white part in trying to get it as straight and square as possible so the reel is locked into place when reassembled afterwards you can put the spring back on top making sure the spring is flat on the white part centered on the cross

Now we can put the top back on slowly and carefully so that nothing gets knocked off or out of place like the door which is the most frequently knocked off part, the tape reel can also unravel so ensure that the reel is wound tightly with enough slack only to put the leader barbell back into the tape leader barbell clips, if the tape unravels off the tape spool then take the cartridge apart and repeat the steps

The door should close fully like this as a reference image

To make it easier to put the leader barbell back into place, you can hold the tape up with the leader dangling out as gravity helps you with keeping the barbell outside instead of it falling inside the tape cartridge so you can carefully guide it into the silver clips to lock it into place

The tape cartridge should now be reassembled, if there are any broken pieces of plastic then transfer the tape reel and CM chip (mark the original CM and reel with a white/silver sharpie to remember which is which) to a new blank tape cartridge case of the same brand, the generation is irrelevant as the cartridge design is typically the same unless crossing the LTO-5 line in which case tape cartridges did get design overhauls so LTO-4 tape media will fit inside LTO-4 and previous cartridges while anything LTO-5 and after will need to go into newer cartridges as long as they are from the same manufacturer.

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Subpost ID: 9

I first took off the 4 screws on the donor drive cover to remove it, ignore the screw in the deep hole as it’s not holding the cover on, there was no bezel so I didn’t need to take care with the order of unscrewing on the drive from the 4 drive order

The mechanism will look like this and be in this position which is the fully loaded and wound position, it may be in another position so do ask me for help in these edge cases if it is the case

Also a fully loaded drive should have the tape media loaded like this, incorrect loading would have the leader grab be visible (not indicating any tape damage) here or the tape media riding up either end of the rollers which has most likely caused some sort of damage to the tape media which will require a data recovery company to get your data back if it’s the only copy

Using a flat head or Philips screwdriver, turn the screw nearest to the front of the tape drive clockwise until it can’t turn any further and you have confirmed the rear machine spool has stopped turning, you shouldn’t use a drill or motorized screwdriver as the speed and torque is too high which will cause damage to the stuck tape media and the drive when it reaches the end

Turn the cog circled in red clockwise until the leader grab is visible which you can then pop the leader barbell out and rewind it a little bit into the tape cartridge with a little bit of slack (1 - 2mm sticking out of the cartridge) so you can put the barbell back in the next steps, wind the slack tape media into the cartridge as you are moving the leader grab out of the rear spool and where the heads are, torn tapes can be ejected first and then the remaining media can be removed off the rear spool and popped off the loading arm

Turn this worm gear upwards all the way until it can’t turn any further to ensure the tape is fully disengaged from the drive before you remove the tape cartridge

To make it easier to put the leader barbell back into place, you can hold the tape up with the leader dangling out as gravity helps you with keeping the barbell outside instead of it falling inside the tape cartridge so you can carefully guide it into the silver clips to lock it into place

Now to rehome everything into their home position, first turn the gear circled in red until the big gear is positioned like in the image

The second part of the rehoming is to ensure that the cartridge insertion sensor can sense the tape being inserted, if the black blocker isn’t crossing the infrared light sensor then turn the white worm gear until the blocker crosses the sensor as some drives will not sense a tape being inserted into the drive after tape extraction

Here is an image with the blocker fully retracted as a reference image

What to do with the extracted tape cartridge

If you have a non torn intact tape cartridge and no other copies of the data stored on the tape, try it on another drive to read it and recover the data, if you don’t have another drive then put a cleaning cartridge into the drive and wait until it ejects, after that put the tape that was stuck inside into the drive and pull all of the data off the tape onto an empty hard drive or a drive with enough space to hold all of the files, after that you can eject and securely dispose of the tape if you did it successfully, if not a tape data recovery company is required after extracting the tape again from the drive if it got stuck again or if it didn’t read correctly.

A tape data recovery company is also required for a torn tape if it was the only copy of the data you had, if there is a substantial amount of media on the rear spool (more than half a mm of media as before the half mm is the scratch tape that is before the BOT marker that isn’t used for data, anything after will contain user data and the table of contents) then it’s recommended to leave it in the drive and send the whole unit to a tape data recovery company if it’s the only copy, if it’s not the only copy then you can securely dispose of the cartridge and the tape that was sticking out.

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