The LTO megapost is finally here!!
This post will include a lot of stuff from making replacement bezels that can be 3D printed and a frame to contain a broken tape drive in pieces as an upcycling project all the way to very complicated repairs which I have documented in great detail and the main part of the post which is the reprogramming guide which makes it so easy a baby can do it.
This post will include a heaping ton of links to sources I used which will be in the resources section which I have curated and boiled down a ton of websites and sources that you can visit if you need any additional information on stuff, I will also add some high quality images of the tape drives in case your tape drive has an extra or missing component that you want to find it’s place for.
Finally I w…
The LTO megapost is finally here!!
This post will include a lot of stuff from making replacement bezels that can be 3D printed and a frame to contain a broken tape drive in pieces as an upcycling project all the way to very complicated repairs which I have documented in great detail and the main part of the post which is the reprogramming guide which makes it so easy a baby can do it.
This post will include a heaping ton of links to sources I used which will be in the resources section which I have curated and boiled down a ton of websites and sources that you can visit if you need any additional information on stuff, I will also add some high quality images of the tape drives in case your tape drive has an extra or missing component that you want to find it’s place for.
Finally I will also list cheap parts and full assemblies all pulled from my scrap tape drives which are all IBM and some HP full height but parts are mostly from old mechanism IBM drives if you request something, premade bezels are there too with many color combinations and even some special ones if you don’t have a 3D printer, I also have a repaired and refurbished tape drive listed for a good price as well as parts drives in case you want to harvest parts from or make a similar frame like I did in one of the subposts.
Anyways, enough rambling, everything is there below to use and read up on, a small warning, you might want to put my post and all subposts onto your hard drives to archive them in case there is the unlikely event of a cease and desist or any other factor that causes my post to be taken down which I can’t resist being a 17 year old teenager with not much money to fight large corporations so do your due diligence and save the post and subposts/bezel 3D printing files in the unlikely event of that happening, also for anyone doesn’t yet know about the Imgur OSA blocks, if you want to access anything that I used Imgur for then you must use a VPN, I have tried to keep Imgur use to an absolute minimum and managed to get all critical parts explainable without the need for Imgur, I have only used it for example of how a reprogramming should happen and what should happen when a tape drive is booting up, loading a tape and unloading a tape.
LTO Reprogramming guide
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1okwm0c/lto_reprogramming_guide_part_1/ (Part 1)
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1okwwsu/lto_reprogramming_guide_part_2/ (Part 2)
This is the main part of the post and without that part, this post wouldn’t have much reason to be made but then I decided to do other LTO related projects so then I tacked on the repairs and other projects
Repairs
Work experience tape drive
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1okx5u0/work_experience_tape_drive/
Work experience tape drive head swap with full mechanism disassembly
Head swap between new and old mechanism tape drives
Stuck tape extraction on full height HP tape drive and leader rethreading
Stuck tape extraction on half height IBM tape drive
Damaged tape cartridge disassembly and reassembly
Other projects
IBM frame
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1okztva/ibm_frame_part_1/ (Part 1)
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol06vf/ibm_frame_part_2/ (Part 2)
IBM LTO half height drive bezels
Reference images and videos of tape drives
HH - Half Height
FH - Full Height
IBM HH LTO old mechanism
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol1147/ibm_hh_lto_old_mechanism_part_1/ (Part 1)
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol1tcs/ibm_hh_lto_new_mechanism_part_2/ (Part 2)
IBM HH LTO new mechanism
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol1nch/ibm_hh_lto_new_mechanism_part_1/ (Part 1)
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol1tcs/ibm_hh_lto_new_mechanism_part_2/ (Part 2)
HP FH LTO
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol31lt/hp_fh_lto_part_1/ (Part 1)
https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditPhotoLink/comments/1ol3b8r/hp_fh_lto_part_2/ (Part 2)
Would do a half height HP but I just refurbished it so I’m afraid of damaging it by taking it apart so I will update this post when I do get another broken one to fix
Absolutely feel free to comment on the subposts to add extra insights, well dones or advice into whatever I have done in that subpost
Tags as reminders for people who DMed me for advice, asked about the LTO Megapost or commented on the LTO Megapost announcement post: u/RinShiroJP, u/stv0g, u/NlGHTWALKER86, u/RandomBFUser, u/DJTheLQ, u/parabellun, u/RadioactiveHalfRhyme, u/DJTheLQ, u/TheRealHarrypm, u/zeno0771, u/Complete-Web-117 apologies if I had missed someone who asked about the post and forgot to tag them
Links and resources that I used to make this post
IBM ITDT
IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool(ITDT) for Windows - Lenovo Support GB
A note for ITDT, the official IBM site requires an IBM account but here you can download it without an account or IBM ID so this site is the better choice unless you have an IBM account in which case do download the most recent version
Manual Data Tape Extraction Procedures - YouTube
These are the procedures to manually extract a tape cartridge from a tape drive, usually when a tape cartridge gets stuck, it’s usually because the tape drive has failed to read the tape and is stuck retrying so the tape never gets ejected, if you do have any LTO or otherwise tape drive where the procedure doesn’t allow you to extract the tape without cutting it then do DM (long reply times as I don’t get notified for whatever reason using the chat despite the setting being on, I do get notified if using the channel that modmail goes through so if you want faster reply times, use that instead) me as I can figure out a way to extract a tape without damaging the tape media and returning the tape drive to a ready to be used state
LTO Manual recovery of stuck tape - YouTube
Here is a video that I also watched that dealt with the manual tape extraction from HP tape drives
Connect USB devices | Microsoft Learn
The Microsoft site that runs you through the usbipd attaching to your computer in case you want to further read about the topic
The GitHub for the usbipd in case anyone needs it but I didn’t using the Microsoft website above
The original GitHub that didn’t make much sense when trying to reprogram the tape drives, the person did most of the figuring out so I will give credit to him for that but the explanation of how to do it wasn’t very clear so I needed the help of many people before I understood how to do it
Port 388h: Disassembling and cleaning an LTO tape drive head
A blog on cleaning the heads on a half height HP LTO tape drive, another resource that I didn’t add to my post but can be useful if you want to do further maintenance
Disassembling an HP Ultrium 460 tape drive head | Tech Thoughts
This is for a full height HP LTO drive if you need it
0x002A - Manually Cleaning a DLT Tape Drive - YouTube
Not LTO but a DLT-V4, not a very technical video but an additional resource if needed if you have legacy equipment running at work or to play with before getting LTO
Hoarding to LTO Tape Primer: All you wanted to know and didn’t about tape backup. : r/DataHoarder
A large repository of information to read further on, I didn’t really use the primer apart from when I got the initial tape drive from work experience
LTO Linear Open Tape Guide · oyvindln/vhs-decode Wiki · GitHub
A second repository of information that got commented on my LTO Megapost announcement post
A subreddit that was also included in the same post as the LTO guide above this link