DLT drive replacement

I am replacing a failed DLT 7000 drive with a known good drive. This page documents the
steps, detailing the screws and their locations. I took these photos as I installed the
drive, not as I removed it. Thus, some items may look out of place. I’ll present the photos in
reverse order and how to simulate the removal.

Remove the cover

On the top of my Digital DLT MiniLibrary (Model DS-TL891-NE)
has a single screw. Undo it and slide the cover towards the rear of the chassis. When replacing
the cover, I needed to lift the front of the cover as I slide it foward. There are tabs which need to
mesh on the rear of the case. The cover also has tabs underneath it which need to mesh with the
front of the case.

Two screws

There are two screws to remove. This is the first one.

The second one looks like this.

Both of the above screws look like this:

The drive case

The DLT drive is contained in a case within the chassis. You need to remove it before
you can swap the drive. There are four screws, two bolts, and three cables to deal with.

These two bolts go through to the bottom of the case. You need to remove both of them.

After you disconnect the cables:

two DLT
one control
one power [no picture for that one]

Removing the drive cage

You should now be able to remove the drive cage. Be very careful not to break the lever which
is attached to the side of the drive that faces the bottom of the tape library. You’ll need
to angle the cage just before it leaves the chassis.

Removing the drive from the cage

The DLT drive is secured by four small screws. Two on each side of the cage.

The lever mentioned above can be seen in the lower left of this image. The two screws
highlighted in the image are mirrored on the other side of the cage. Remove all four
and slide the drive out the cage.

Be sure to carefully remove the lever and add it to the new drive. Then reverse the
steps listed above to reinsert the drive.

Reassembly

One key part of the reassembly is bolt placement. Before you start to screw in the bolts,
they need to be placed as shown here:

If the bolts look like this, they aren’t in the hole properly. Keep trying

That should be it

That should be it. Good to go. My next task: get the tape library going with the system.