> > Yes, it's the exact same tape drive I've been using extensively for
> > testing, and all that time it had been sitting in the same position on
> > the floor.  I moved it on Monday, and then amanda took off like a
> > lightning bolt.
> >
> > Wow, that's something I'll be classing as very weird, but very good.  I
> > was impressed by the 9 hours it took to do backups, but now I'm
> > speechless...
> >
> > I've introduced a new tape for tonight's backup run.  Will see what it
> > tells me tomorrow.
> >
> > Thanks very much for your help!
> 
> Yeah it sounds VERY much like a marginal SCSI cable....what OS do you have? 
> Sometimes termination issues will show up in dmesg, also dmesg will usually 
> show the speed at which the device negotiates....it is shown elsewhere too 
> depending on your OS.
>
The time sounds right do start doing a test of your tape drive, using
all the SCSI adapter bios tools to see what it reports, and then
trying to stuff the tape with data and see how fast it can take it.

Olivier