> The problem is that there actually is no tape in the drive. I
> physically popped it out myself.  What is going on here?  How can I
> test for the presence of a mounted tape with write enabled if the
> system reports tapes when none are present?

Have you looked at CHKTAPE from Allegro?  (It's free)

http://www.allegro.com/software/hp3000/stuff/CHKTAPE.txt
Version: @(#) ChkTape 20020919

Usage:
  chktape devicenumber

Where devicenumber is the device number (LDEV) of the tape drive.

Returns in CI variable CHKTAPE_RESULT:
    0 - Tape is unowned, online, at BOT and writeable
    1 - Tape is unowned, online, at BOT andwrite protected
    2 - An error occurred.  Probably an invalid device number
    3 - Device is not a tape drive
    4 - Device is owned by another process
    5 - Device is owned by the system
    6 - Device is not online
    7 - No tape in device

ChkTape must reside in a group.account with PM capability.

ChkTape was originally written by Terry Tipton of ROC Software,
and has been modified by Stan Sieler of Allegro Consultants.

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