richard@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Richard Foulk) (01/03/89)
In article <8812131900.AA25887@julia.math.ucla.edu> you write: } We have a 8mm 2.2Gbyte SCSI tape system from Software Associates which we } are using for dumps, about 1 Gbyte in 16 various-sized files. This system } uses the standard Sun SCSI driver (SunOS v3.5). Frequently it performs } fine, but on 10-20% of the dump sets it will dump a few files, get an I/O } error, and be unable to recover.... We recently got one of those Exabyte drives from someone (forgot who) and it was delivered with a replacement driver for use with SunOS 3.5. I was told that the driver was unnecessary for SunOS 4.0 but that Suns 3.5 driver had some bugs in it. The symptoms sounded similar to yours. The vendor told me that the driver they provide actually came from Sun, so I would guess you could probably get a copy from them if you asked the right person. Richard Foulk richard@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu
bet@bent.mc.duke.edu (Bennett Todd) (01/05/89)
We had similar problems, only for us it was closer to 90% of dumps failed horribly. The conclusion we came to is that Maxell tapes weren't working for us. We switched to Sony and it started working fine. We are using the Delta Microsystems' packaging (purchased through Peripheral Devices) of the Exabyte; Delta Microsystems includes their own device driver for the critter. It has been extremely reliable as long as we used Sony media, and unusable with Maxell media. I have heard that others have had similar experiences. Try (if you haven't already) switching media -- the cost differential between the various brands is pretty insignificant. -Bennett P.S. Please reply to bet@orion.mc.duke.edu