Nov 042010
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
