SCSI tape errors

[zdrysdal@diagnostic.co.nz]

Hi

i have set up a SCSI DAT tape onto debian slink with kernel 2.0.38 and nfs
(no_root_squash) mounted an IBM AIX directory.  I use a simple backup
program which tars the files from the AIX directory onto tape.  It works
for a little while but i think it gets into trouble when it trys to
proccess a large file (200MB).  I started the backup at 9:30pm and it
started having problems by 11pm.

Here is the error message :

Jul 13 23:11:40 tapier kernel: ASC= 4 ASCQ= 1
Jul 13 23:11:40 tapier kernel: Raw sense data:0x70 0x00 0x02 0x00 0x00 0x00
 0x00
 0x0e 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x04 0x01 0x00 0x00
Jul 13 23:11:40 tapier kernel: st0: Error with sense data: extra data not
valid
Current error st09:00: sns = 70  2

Backup program errors are :
tar: Read error on /dev/st0: Input/output error
tar: Too many errors, quitting
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

I tried doing a tar listing of the tape this morning and it said the the
start record was unable to be read.

Does anyone know what is going on... it is a simple proceedure i am doing
and am frustrated and perplexed as to why i am
having difficulties.

Thanx

Zane