We use an internal LTO3 tape drive (HP Ultrium 920) in a PC (no particular server hardware) running Linux. The tape drive becomes quite hot - I don't have the exact temperature, but you may touch it for a second or two, then it hurts ;-) This happens when the tape has nothing to do (during reading/writing, it might become even hotter, I haven't checked that). Besides that, the system is working fine. Now I'm wondering Why does the tape becomes so hot? Is this something I need to care about? Is there something like a 'standby' mode for the tape? (I think it should not consume that much energy when it is not used)