[comp.os.vms] TK50 questions

Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com (William Thomas Daugustine) (05/26/90)

I was 'playing' around with the TK50 drive on our VAX 6220 the other day,
trying to initalize a tape to make copies of stuff. I started to get
errors, but dont quite understand what its telling me.

First, the TK50 is MUB6:, I used ASSIGN MUB6: CART at the DCA prompt,
and tried INIT MUB6: CART: (I like to use the same log names as the
volume, so I dont forget).

VMS came back with an error:

%INIT-F-VOLINV, volume is not software enabled

Do I need to MOUNT the drive first before INIT? I dont think I had to do
that on the TU81+, but of course, I could be wrong.

I know the TK50 works, we booted from it a couple of times, and some
of the VMS upgrades came on this tape format.

Can anyone help me? Thank you

Billy D'Augustine
Azog-Thoth@cup.portal.com

ted@blia.BLI.COM (Ted Marshall) (05/30/90)

There is an old rev of the TK50 controller that has problems. I would find it
hard to believe that such old rev would be on a VAX 62xx, but it is possible.
The problem is that if you take the drive off-line while that tape is moving,
(i.e. push the red button so it comes out while the green light is flashing),
the controller locks up. VMS then gives the "volume not software enabled" for
further operations. The only way I know to clear the condition is to POWER OFF
the system!

Your comments about "playing around" make me wonder if this what is happening.
The easiest way to tell, if you haven't powered off the system yet, is to see
if you can mount an already initialized tape.

This problem is fixed by an FCO from DEC (sorry, I don't know the FCO number
of the affected rev levels of the controller).

As someone else replied, you work with a TK50 just like any other DEC tape
drive.

-- 
Ted Marshall          ...!ucbvax!mtxinu!blia!ted  <or>  ted@blia.bli.com
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