Tape backups

[John Seth]

Recently I've gone from a standalone PC with no SCSI, 256MB of RAM, and an
AMD 350 CPU to a Quad Processor Xeon 733 w/ 2GB of RAM, and plenty of raid
disk space (Dell rackmount systems).  However, this system doesn't have a
tape backup, and isn't attached to my company's main tape auto-mounter.  I
plugged in an Exabyte 8900T that was lying around collecting dust into an
available scsi port and can do the rewind/eject thing with MT, however up
to this point, I've never needed to do my own backups to tape (I backup my
own server via FTP nightly after using tar/gunzip).

When I try to create a new backup via tar to the tape, it crashes, or
dumps.  When I look at the console, I get some info that makes little
sense to me.  Since I'm basically a newbie at backing up to tape, I'm
wondering if anyone has some ideas on where I can start.  Do I need to
format the tape?  and if so, how do I do it?  This system is running RH
8.0 with no Xwin...

Secondly, on my own personal system, I installed an old floppy tape drive,
and wonder if anyone has any ideas for me on where to start with that...
Forgive me for sounding desperate, the TLDP website is good, but there's
just so much out there, that I'm beginning to be overwhelmed by opinions
and ideas.  My system is running Slackware 8, so there's no such thing as
'amanda'...

Any tips, pointers, and suggestions are welcome :)

Thanks,

   Tony

---
Dell system errors from Exabyte 8900T drive:

Apr  9 15:26:57 ebonite kernel: st0: Error with sense data: Current st09:00: sense key Illegal Request
Apr  9 15:26:57 ebonite kernel: Additional sense indicates Cannot write medium - incompatible format
Apr  9 15:26:57 ebonite kernel: st0: Error with sense data: Current st09:00: sense key Illegal Request
Apr  9 15:26:57 ebonite kernel: Additional sense indicates Cannot write medium - incompatible format
Apr  9 15:26:57 ebonite kernel: st0: Error on write filemark.