hjespersen@trillium.waterloo.edu (Hans Jespersen) (07/31/89)
In article <9705@alice.UUCP> debra@alice.UUCP () writes: >In article <2708@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> mrb1@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (maurice.r.baker) writes: >> Can I read a cartridge tape written on a 3B2/600 with my 6386's >> streaming tape unit (official AT&T issue) known as /dev/rmt/c0s0 ? >> Any suggestions on smoothing the way here ? 'cpio' seems like a >> likely candidate. > >Nope, I tried that. The 3B series use a different format. >Tapes must be formatted first, and then one can create file systems on them >or use a special cpio and such. Are you sure about this? I think you are mixing up the 60 MB tapes with the older 23 MB tapes ( from the 3B2/400 or XM ). To my knowledge the 23 MB tapes were the only cartridge tapes that needed to be formatted ahead of time. I KNOW that I have written a 60 MB tape on a 3B2/600 and read it successfully on a 6386. In fact, it was the first thing I tried once I got my hands on a tape drive for the 6386. ( this was using cpio ) -- Hans Jespersen hjespersen@trillium.waterloo.edu uunet!watmath!trillium!hjespersen
debra@alice.UUCP (Paul De Bra) (07/31/89)
In article <15521@watdragon.waterloo.edu> hjespersen@trillium.waterloo.edu (Hans Jespersen) writes: }... }I think you are mixing up the 60 MB tapes with }the older 23 MB tapes ( from the 3B2/400 or XM ). To my knowledge the }23 MB tapes were the only cartridge tapes that needed to be formatted }ahead of time. I KNOW that I have written a 60 MB tape on a 3B2/600 }and read it successfully on a 6386. In fact, it was the first thing I }tried once I got my hands on a tape drive for the 6386. ( this was using }cpio ) Oops, our 3B2 is a 3B2/400 indeed, so it has the older 23MB tape drives. Nice to hear that newer 3B's have compatible drives. (This doesn't help us though since we have to live with an old 3B.) Paul. -- ------------------------------------------------------ |debra@research.att.com | uunet!research!debra | ------------------------------------------------------
len@netsys.Netsys.COM (Len Rose) (08/01/89)
One can _easily_ install the 60 meg and 120 meg tape drives, and any other scsi peripheral on any 310/400 .. If you bemoan the fact that you can't read the newer tape formats, simply upgrade to SCSI and obtain one of the AT&T tape packages.. With a 3B2/400 running at 14 mhz, the only lack is ram... 4 meg just doesn't seem to be enough nowdays, especially with starlan,rfs, and or serious applications. I suspect it won't be long until we start seeing 500's and 600's pretty cheap on the used equipment market. I like to hear people saying that X is old and slow compared to the new X.. If it does the job for you, it's still quite valuable. One has to look at the replacement costs too.. Since the 3B2 family is binary compatible, it'll be quite some time before we retire 310's and 400's .. A maxed out 400,still beats the pants of any 386 machine we have seen yet.. The loading factors,number of users, and heavy serial i/o (as in blazers) consistently prove the 3B2 family a winner. We have a machine here with 3 blazers and a couple 2400 baud modems, and with all lines going full blast, we don't even notice a bit.. This is on eports of course,but hpp boards are just as solid.. I can bring a 386 down (as in crash) by catting a long text file at the console. It's a world of difference between the two classes of machines.. I just pity someone who has been sold on the premise that they can replace the 3B2 with a 386.. I recommend everyone to get a 386 and plug it into starlan and or ethernet, but for god's sake don't sell your 3B2's :-)
les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) (08/01/89)
In article <9711@alice.UUCP> debra@alice.UUCP () writes: [3b2 vs 386 tapes] >Oops, our 3B2 is a 3B2/400 indeed, so it has the older 23MB tape drives. >Nice to hear that newer 3B's have compatible drives. (This doesn't help >us though since we have to live with an old 3B.) The answer is to install network cards and link the machines via RFS. Then you can use either tape drive to access either disk. The only problem then is that you need enough empty disk space to copy in 125M of data to fill the 386 tapes. Les Mikesell
bud@sq.sq.com (Bud Greasley) (08/03/89)
In article <15521@watdragon.waterloo.edu> hjespersen@trillium.waterloo.edu (Hans Jespersen) writes: >In article <9705@alice.UUCP> debra@alice.UUCP () writes: >>In article <2708@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> mrb1@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (maurice.r.baker) writes: >>> Can I read a cartridge tape written on a 3B2/600 with my 6386's >>> streaming tape unit (official AT&T issue) known as /dev/rmt/c0s0 ? >>> Any suggestions on smoothing the way here ? 'cpio' seems like a >>> likely candidate. >> >>Nope, I tried that. The 3B series use a different format. >>Tapes must be formatted first, and then one can create file systems on them >>or use a special cpio and such. > >Are you sure about this? I think you are mixing up the 60 MB tapes with >the older 23 MB tapes ( from the 3B2/400 or XM ). To my knowledge the >23 MB tapes were the only cartridge tapes that needed to be formatted >ahead of time. I KNOW that I have written a 60 MB tape on a 3B2/600 >and read it successfully on a 6386. In fact, it was the first thing I >tried once I got my hands on a tape drive for the 6386. ( this was using >cpio ) > >-- >Hans Jespersen >hjespersen@trillium.waterloo.edu >uunet!watmath!trillium!hjespersen Carefull here! Unless you have patched the tape controller on your 6386 (Fix #81) with new ROMs, you will not be able to read 6386 written tapes on your 3B2/{5,6,7,10}00, Sun, etc. Bud Greasley SoftQuad Inc. bud@sq.com