And don't let that scare you off about the reliability of the drives, Rob. From what I understand, the loose leader problem is one of the most common failures of a DLT drive,

Yep. Out of all our tech support calls, this is common. Quantum based DLT drives (almost all of them) will flash all the LEDs on the right hand side. As Tony said, it's easy to fix, and is rare to happen to a drive. Most common cause of it is a bad tape being inserted. Most cases, a tape goes bad if it gets dropped from a few feet. We have a 4 step tape verification procedure for DLTs:

1. Shake the tape gently. There should be no noise from the tape, as all components should be secure.

2. Push in the spool wheel on the bottom a bit, and release. It should spring back into place following your finger.

3. Open the top of the tape and ensure the tape leader is visible in the opening. It looks like a rounded section of the end of a tape, and contains a hole.

4. Ensure that hole on the tape is not broken.