hsu@santra.UUCP (Heikki Suonsivu) (01/13/88)
I have been searching for tape drive for PC/AT clones, which would be 1) Reliable, no cheap toys. 2) Minimum storage size about 60M. 3) External drive, with cheap card in machine. 4) Drivers for Microport unices, xenix can be found, producing tape formats compatible with 'bigger' computers like suns, NCR towers and such things. 5) Has good quality/price ratio. 6) Adapters for many computers could be interesting, like Apple Macintosh, PS/2. Idea is to have local computer club software libraries on tapes, and one tape unix which could be borrowed by local bbs sysops and club members (thats why cheap card, as it will blow up quite often anyway. Something like traveldisk card would be optimal solution, so people using drive often could afford to get their own cards). Also it's quite important to be able to transfer software to/from unix systems. I have been looking at Tecmar drive, as I have some good experience with it, and it has been around quite long so I guess it's quite stable product. However, I don't know if there's drivers for xenix and uport unix, and if there is, where to get them from, and can I read/write tapes compatible with anything else. Mail, please. Inet: hsu@santra ................. Kuutamokatu 5 A 7 Uucp: ...!mcvax!santra!hsu ....... 02210 Espoo ..... Fido: Heikki Suonsivu at 2:504/1 . FINLAND .........
chip@killer.UUCP (Chip Rosenthal) (01/16/88)
In article <9812@santra.UUCP> hsu@santra.UUCP (Heikki Suonsivu) writes: >I have been searching for tape drive for PC/AT clones I thought this might be of general enough interest to post. We are sharing a Tecmar QT60-E tape drive among several systems, both SCO XENIX and DOS. It was purchased at a local Businessland in July of 1987. To date, the drive has been reliable and I can recommend it with a few reservations. To give you some idea of what we have: QT60-E tape drive kit 60MB streaming tape DC600A tapes or equiv includes interface card, cable, DOS SW, doc $1372 Host Adapter Expansion kit includes interface card, cable, HW only doc $159 XENIX Device Drivers written by Sytron Corp. includes Sytos backup SW and doc $249 >1) Reliable, no cheap toys. Has been to date. >2) Minimum storage size about 60M. This is max 60M...but there might be larger drives available. If this is an issue, send mail. I probably have notes somewhere from my conversations with Tecmar. >3) External drive, with cheap card in machine. I don't know if you consider $159 cheap, but I didn't see anything much cheaper (that would work!!) when I was looking. >4) Drivers for Microport unices, xenix can be found, producing tape >formats compatible with 'bigger' computers like suns, NCR towers and >such things. Tar, cpio, and dd under SCO XENIX work fine. Note that the standard tape driver in SCO V2.2 won't work with this machine. You need to get the Sytron driver. Don't know about uport. >5) Has good quality/price ratio. I'm satisfied. >6) Adapters for many computers could be interesting... I didn't look into this. Although I have no reservations about the hardware...I have several problems with the Sytron software. It does work. The driver installed very easily. But I see several problems: First...the driver seems fairly stupid. When the tape is rewinding, everything stops until the operation is complete. Second...the Sytos software is horrible. It is what happens when you have people with a DOS mentatility producing *nix software. It is pretty. It uses menus. It has colors. Because it only allows you to program one backup setting, you can't do little things like different levels of incremental backups on different directories. Oh...and also it screws with the cursor and doesn't restore it when the program exits. (I am using some scripts which do a find/tar for my backups.) Third...the ioctl()'s are different than those that SCO uses, and therefore the SCO XENIX tape utilities will not work with it. Also, they don't document their low level interface, e.g. what are the ioctl()'s. Therefore, I can't retension a tape. In spite of the above, I am getting done what I need. Therefore, I am satisfied with what I am using. -- Chip Rosenthal chip@vector.UUCP | But if you want to sing the Dallas Semiconductor (214) 450-0400 | blues, then boy you better {texsun,codas,ihnp4}!killer!vector!chip | learn how to lose.
plocher@geowhiz.UUCP (01/17/88)
>I have been searching for tape drive for PC/AT clones Bell Technologies (330 Warren Ave Fremont, CA 94539 415/659-9097) sells a series of 60 Mb tape drives - including a model with inexpensive short slot card. We have the full slot (Everex/Wangtec) combo and we can't complain at all. The drivers are solid, they don't do dumb things like hanging the system until the rewind operation is complete. :-) >1) Reliable, no cheap toys. it is reliable, also not a toy. >2) Minimum storage size about 60M. it is a 60Mb unit that we use, Bell also has a (100? 120?) Mb unit which I haven't seen. >3) External drive, with cheap card in machine. Yup - card costs ?? $90 US ?? >4) Drivers for Microport unices, xenix can be found, producing tape >formats compatible with 'bigger' computers like suns, NCR towers and >such things. Drivers provided for: Microport V/AT Bell Tech V.3-386 IBM Xenix IBM Xenix 2.0 SCO Xenix Also they provide PRE-LINKED kernels for the above as a generic method for those who either don't want to or can't modify their kernel. (no linkkit, no compiler package, no local "Unix Guru" :-) The tape format (CPIO or TAR) is compatible between Microport, Xenix (all), Sun; I am currently sending out a tape to someone with a 3Bx of some type to try those machines out, too. >5) Has good quality/price ratio. I'm satisfied. >6) Adapters for many computers could be interesting... Bell seems to use the Everex (GOOD!) controllers; I think that Everex has a PS/2 card out there...
alfred@edvvie.at (Alfred Kovacs) (07/29/89)
Hey Folks outside on the Use-Net ! Is there any known problem with SCO-Xenix 368 Rel.2.2.3 for IBM PS2 Mod. 70/80 dealing with streamer-tapes. I have a serious problem with the streamer IBM 6157-001 connected to IBM PS2 Mod. 80-111. When I try to make a backup with the command "tar" I sometimes get a strange filesystem. Some normal files then look like this: e.g. cr-Stwx-wT 1 12602 13114 92, 58 Dec 5 2023 filename b--sr---wx 1 26890 29472 9, 58 Jan 25 2026 termcap If I do a "fsck" I get many damaged files and the message: "Bad inode count wrong in superblock" Also the MOUNTAIN-Streamer does not work correctly with IBM Mod. 70/80. If i try to restore files with the command "tar -xvf /dev/rct0" After having restored some files I suddenly get the message: "tar: tape read error" I have tried to change the interrupt level und some other things but it doesn't help. If these problems can't be solved, does anybody know supported streames, which work without any problems. Thanks for your help. alfred -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EDV Ges.m.b.H Vienna Alfred Kovacs (USENET: alfred@edvvie.at) Hofmuehlgasse 3 - 5 LOCAL: alfred@eliza A-1060 Vienna, Austria/Europe Tel: (0043) (222) 59907/343
bob@consult.UUCP (Bob Willey) (07/29/89)
In article <47@eliza.edvvie.at> alfred@edvvie.at (Alfred Kovacs) writes: >Is there any known problem with SCO-Xenix 368 Rel.2.2.3 for IBM PS2 Mod. >70/80 dealing with streamer-tapes. >I have a serious problem with the streamer IBM 6157-001 connected to IBM PS2 >Mod. 80-111. >When I try to make a backup with the command "tar" I sometimes get a strange >filesystem. >Also the MOUNTAIN-Streamer does not work correctly with IBM Mod. 70/80. >If i try to restore files with the command Yes, there are problems with some of the drivers. However, if you have contact with your VAR or reseller, you should request the latest version of the drivers. Mountain has an update driver for their FileSafe systems, that when used work just fine. But the original driver has some problems. It is a combination problem, of timing and MCA devices. (They seem to create quite a problem to get the devices to work properly). I am not a fan of MCA cards or the interface (No flames necessary, since this is just my opinion), but be very cautious about getting VERY current drivers when on these devices. don't depend on the fact that you tape is new, therefore it is a Current driver. You don't know how long it sat in distribution before you got it. Call immediately to ensure that you get the latest release!! Just a helpful hint. -- .. Computer Consulting Service .. Bob Willey .. .. P.O. Drawer 1690 .. uunet!consult!bob .. .. Easton, Maryland 21601 .. (301) 820-4670 .. ...............................................................