arritt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (06/07/91)
We just got a brand-new Exabyte drive from a company called
R-Squared. The tapes seem to write fine, but the problem
comes in reading them back. I've done two backups using 'bru'
and get no write errors. But I've tried to list the tape contents
using
bru -tv > brulog.exabyte.060691
and get the following error messages after the tape is partially read:
bru: warning - assuming end of volume 1 (unknown size)
bru: load volume 2 and enter device [default: /dev/tape]
i.e., the system seems to erroneously think it's reached the
end of the media???
The error appears to be non-systematic, i.e. successive attempts
get the error at different places on the tape (200 MB into the
tape, 400 MB, right near the beginning, whatever).
The error has occurred on two different cartridges. Both are the
Sony 8mm metal particle tapes.
I set up the Exabyte as SCSI address 6 and ran '/dev/MAKEDEV tape'
to get it going. Our systems run IRIX 3.3.1.
I've seen similar errors on our QIC drive as a result of dirty heads.
But it's hard to believe that could be the problem on a drive we got
brand-new three days ago.
Any suggestions? I haven't been able to find many references to Exabyte
in the SGI docs, and don't have much from the other vendor either.
Any help you can provide would be appreciated.
________________________________________________________________________
Raymond W. Arritt |
Assistant Professor |
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy | "People never travel to look
University of Kansas | at flat landscapes."
Lawrence, KS 66045 | - from _Stop Making Sense_ ,
arritt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu | by the Talking Heads
arritt@walrus.phsx.ukans.edu |
arritt@ukanvax.bitnet |
olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) (06/08/91)
In <1991Jun6.151002.31286@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> arritt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes: | We just got a brand-new Exabyte drive from a company called | R-Squared. The tapes seem to write fine, but the problem | comes in reading them back. I've done two backups using 'bru' | and get no write errors. But I've tried to list the tape contents | using | bru -tv > brulog.exabyte.060691 | and get the following error messages after the tape is partially read: | bru: warning - assuming end of volume 1 (unknown size) | bru: load volume 2 and enter device [default: /dev/tape] | i.e., the system seems to erroneously think it's reached the | end of the media??? | | The error appears to be non-systematic, i.e. successive attempts | get the error at different places on the tape (200 MB into the | tape, 400 MB, right near the beginning, whatever). I would check to see if there are any messages in /usr/adm/SYSLOG that would shed more light on the problem. If there are none, then there is likely to be something wrong with the drive, with it reporting a FM or EOD when it shouldn't. -- Dave Olson Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.