On Fri, Sep 08, 2006 at 03:45:57PM -0400, Joshua Baker-LePain enlightened us:
> Please keep responses on the list.  Also, top posting and not trimming 
> posts are generally frowned upon.
> 
> >Thanks for pointing that out.
> >
> >I've had so many problems with this, I just assumed this to be another
> >strange error and did not even notice the medium not present
> >message.... duh!!!!.
> >
> >Also, I think load is not the right word to use since mt cannot load a
> >tape, it must be done manually or by a robot.
> 
> Precisely.  Use 'mtx' to have the robot load the tape.  After the tape 
> drive goes through its (automatic) loading cycle, the tape will be ready 
> for use.  'mt status' can confirm that.  Furthermore, at least with my 
> Overland robot, 'mtx unload' automatically does a 'mt offline' to eject 
> the tape.  So running 'mt' manually is pretty rare, really.

Just for the record, I use mt's load command to pull a tape in that has been
previously ejected, but not removed from the drive. 

After I dump to tape, I eject the tape, but don't physically remove it from
the drive. That way if I need to restore a file from last week, it's as easy
as

mt -f /dev/nst0 load
amrecover 

I eject the tape so that when amdump runs each night, it doesn't read the
headers over and over, shortening the life of the tape (since I spool to
holding disk all week and flush to tape once a week) and forces me to run
another command before I can have a typo erase all of last weeks dumps :-)

Matt


-- 
Matt Hyclak
Department of Mathematics 
Department of Social Work
Ohio University
(740) 593-1263