big problems with tar (GNU tar) 1.13.18

[Christian Groove]

Dear Sirs

actually i have several problems using tar on my SuSE7.1 Linux.
I try to archive a big directory, containing some file with a size about
0.6Gb  up to 0.8 Gbytes. 
Firstly i ran into problems using a DAT-drive (DDS3), because
tar told me a device full indication. That was quite funny, because
he failed to write 5Gb on a 12Gb tape. 
OK, then i decided to use a file, to (firstly) store the packed information.
But this operation also failed with the same indication message, regardless
that the disk had still 6Gb free.

Do you have any ideas, could it be a Linux2.4. problem.

Thanks in advance.
Groovie