[net.micro.pc] 9-track tape drives

flip@osu-cgrg.UUCP (07/14/86)

*** REPLACE THIS floppy WITH YOUR tape drive ***

Any REAL LIFE EXPERIENCES (note, not "well i've heard of this...") with
any of the tape drives available for the pc? i need the 10 inch reel
capibility. The stuff is coming usually off of a vax or a system 36.
Comments reguarding software, hardware relaiability, etc would be
appreciated. Also, any hardware hack job home brew thoughts would
be appreciated.

		yours in 9-tracks
			flip

-- 

	Flip Phillips {ucbvax,decvax}!cbosg!osu-cgrg!flip
	Computer Graphics Research Group, The Ohio State University

"All I wanted was a Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me..."
		-Suicidal Tendancies

authorplaceholder@inmet.UUCP (07/18/86)

**********@<-<-<-< Choke on it, Line Eater!**********

	I used an Alloy single-reel 9-track system for two years, for
	backups and data tranfers -- never had a hardware problem.  
	The drive itself is built like a tank, and weighs near as much. 
	The control panel is idiot-proof; you can't hang the system up,
	no matter how you punch the membrane keys.

	The interface was proprietary, although I heard they were going
	to go SCSI.  The control software is fairly straight-forward
	and seemingly quite robust - it never really hung-up on me either,
	despite lots of reasonable opportunities to do so.  You can write
	ASCII or binary files to and from the tape, or you can
	use a compressed backup-restore format.  If you are writing ASCII
	or binary files, you can specify block and record length, and 
	number of blocks or records to be written.  (There was one bug in
	the routine that wrote binaries to DOS -- it insisted on writing
	only in even segments, even though it properly informed DOS that
	the file type was binary.)  

	I don't have comparable experience with any other PC-compatable
	9-tracks, but if robustness and reliability are your major criteria,
	you can't go too far wrong with this system.
	

					    Roger Brockett

				        ...!ihnp!ima!roger


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