Well I hooked all the pieces together and checked out the HP7974 tape drive capstan (as various members of you suggested and yes, it had turned to goo. This is just like the earlier posts this year on this nefarious capstan. Having lacquer thinner, I was able to remove the goo. It is now bare aluminum. For test purposes and wishing to harm the brand new tapes I got from HP, I found an old Platform 1P Cold Load tape I had made some years back on an HP7979 and loaded it up. The tape drive display reported ID7 then BOT. So I assumed this was good. I turned on my Micro/XE and waited for the Bootstrap menu. Did an I/O map and it found my two Eagles and lo and behold, the HP7974 also. With the tape at BOT and the menu in front of me, I entered LOAD 4, 3 (which happened to be what was reported in IOMAP.) The result I got was: WCS boot failure: Can't read WCS pointer record from tape. Hmmmm... Is it the tape drive, or is it Memorex? Just in case it has anything to do with the capstan, let me know. Although I doubt it, as it consistently finds BOT on all my old tapes. Remembering there was something extra one has to do with goo removed capstans, I'm holding back on using my new HP tapes. Although I think a 3/4 inch wide cut of heat shrink tubing might do the trick, if they make them that large, or perhaps a fat and small rubber band. Will try again later tomorrow. Tracy M. Johnson [log in to unmask] TRW Automotive