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Does the device file for the tape drive, /dev/sg0, exist? If it exists, then you should be able to access the device with the mt(magnetic tape) command which is used to run some common tasks. mt has several different options but is usually used with the -f option:
# mt -f <device file> <command>
For example:
# mt -f /dev/sg0 retension
# mt -f /dev/sg0 rewind
Also, tape device files usually come in pairs, so you should have a /dev/sg0 and a /dev/nsg0. If you use the sg0 device file, the tape drive will automaitcally rewind after it completes the requested operation. If you use /dev/nsg0, it won't rewind, i.e. the 'n' stands for "nonrewinding". You can access the device through either device file depending on what you want to do.
If you don't have a /dev/sg0 device file for the drive, try manually inserting the necessary scsi modules for the device with modprobe:
# modprobe scsi_mod
# modprobe sg
And then try running some commands with mt to see if you can communicate with the drive.
Once you get communication established with the device through the mt command, you can back up to the tape using the tar command. If you wanted to back your /home directory, you would run:
# tar -cvf /dev/sg0 /home
You can also use the cpio command and there are various other more sophisticate applications like AMANDA that can back up to tape.
That pretty much exhausts what little I remember of tape drives in linux. Good luck.
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