[wplug-bsd] Tape Drive -- broken?

[Brandon Kuczenski]

I recently acquired an old IDE QIC/Travan tape drive (for free) and I'm 
trying to get it to work.  I don't know for sure whether the unit is any 
good, but I would like to rule out operator error before I throw it away.

OS is FreeBSD 4.10.

Here's what happens: at boot time, the tape drive is detected as device 
ast0:

/kernel: ast0: TAPE <Seagate STT20000A> at ata1-slave PIO4

When I insert a brand-new 4/8GB tape and run 'mt -f /dev/ast0 status' as 
root I get the following output:

Mode      Density              Blocksize      bpi      Compression
Current:  0x01:X3.22-1983      512 bytes      800      none
---------available modes---------
0:        default              variable       0        none
1:        default              variable       0        none
2:        default              variable       0        none
3:        default              variable       0        none
---------------------------------
File Number: 0  Record Number: 0        Residual Count 0

and the following message in /var/log/messages:

/kernel: ast0: TEST_UNIT_READY - HARDWARE ERROR asc=0xf0 ascq=0x36 
error=0x00

Similarly, if I run 'mt -f /dev/ast0 rewind', I get no output to the 
terminal but the following in the logs:

/kernel: ast0: TEST_UNIT_READY - HARDWARE ERROR asc=0xf0 ascq=0x36 
error=0x00 
/kernel: ast0: REZERO - HARDWARE ERROR asc=0xf0 ascq=0x36 error=0x00

After either of these commands, if I run 'mt -f /dev/ast0 errstat' the 
terminal displays:

mt: /dev/ast0: Inappropriate ioctl for device

So, does this suggest the drive is fried, or am I doing something wrong? 
Google search shows that 'inappropriate' message popping up occasionally 
for all manner of devices, but usually the hits are in the form of mailing 
list posts with few, if any, responses, and nothing that seems relevant to 
my situation.  Any ideas?

-Brandon