On Sep 9, 2004, at 12:28 PM, Zoltan Forray/AC/VCU wrote:

We recently had a tape eaten by one of our 3590 drives. ...

We don't know the nature of that damage, but it's worth reminding
3590 customers that tapes can sometimes be repaired, if the damage
was to the leading end of the tape: in this case, that end of the
tape can be trimmed and the leader block reattached.
If the tape was crumpled far in, it may be possible to smooth that
portion enough to make it safe to make a final-copy through a drive,
in the case where that is the only existent copy of valuable data, to
make the small risk well worthwhile.

   Richard Sims