>Richard,
>
>That would make sense, if the job was "freezing" in the middle of the
>copies, but apparently, it just waits a while before starting to write
>the first bit of data to tape, and then goes fine till the end !

Then that speaks to a defective tape (or even drive) problem, as I
suggested.  That is, the drive is having trouble mounting the tape.
Observing the drive during one of these instances could be illuminating.

  Richard Sims, BU