Just trying to verify that I'm having an actual hardware error.
Backups on one tape server (that's been in use for years) failed with
the following:
taper: tape archive03 kb 0 fm 0 writing filemark: Input/output error
taper: retrying q42:/d5/backups/oracle/Dmp.0 on new tape: [writing filemark: 
Input/output error]
taper: tape archive04 kb 1796480 fm 1 writing file: Input/output error

and everything remained on the holdingingdisk.  From using dd I can
see that Amanda is successfully updating the date in the header block.
I can successfully run amlabel on the tapes, and I can use tar to
write and read a tar file to/from the tape.  However, 'mt eof' fails,
and gives the same error in the system logs as when Amanda runs:

kernel: st1: Error with sense data: <6>st1: Current: sense key: Medium Error
kernel:     Additional sense: Write error
kernel: Info fld=0x1

Is it definitely a drive failure when data can be written but not
EOF marks, or is there something else I should check before replacing
the drive?

Thanks,
Frank

-- 
Frank Smith                                      fsmith AT hoovers DOT com
Sr. Systems Administrator                       Voice: 512-374-4673
Hoover's Online                                   Fax: 512-374-4501