Stupid tape drive!

I got home last night, and saw that the previous night's backup had failed. So I tried retensioning the tape (standard procedure), and started getting weird noises from my tape drive as the tape slowed down and came to a complete stop. I tried other tapes, and they all did the same thing, too. It looks like after 4 years my STT8000A TR-4 tape drive has finally bit the dust. That's not too bad, considering that I used that drive daily for the first 2 years that I had it.

So, it looks like I get to replace it with this drive, which is funny, because it's HALF as expensive as the same model from another store!