goroff@kashmir.TTI.COM (Marc Goroff) (03/08/90)
I am thinking about using a Colorado Memory Systems 40Mbyte tape drive as a cheap ($240) backup device for my 386 SysV box at home. It is an internal drive that sits on a floppy disk controller. CMS claims to have a driver for Xenix, but not Unix. Does anybody have a driver for this unit under SysV, or perhaps source code to the Xenix driver?? Any help would be appreciated. ------------------------------- Marc Goroff goroff@kashmir.tti.com CitiCorp Transaction Technology Inc. or mhg@theory3.caltech.edu Santa Monica, CA Any opinions expressed above are my own and do not represent ...
usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) (03/12/90)
From article <10622@ttidca.TTI.COM>, by goroff@kashmir.TTI.COM (Marc Goroff): $ I am thinking about using a Colorado Memory Systems 40Mbyte tape drive $ as a cheap ($240) backup device for my 386 SysV box at home. It is an $ internal drive that sits on a floppy disk controller. CMS claims $ to have a driver for Xenix, but not Unix. Does anybody have a driver for $ this unit under SysV, or perhaps source code to the Xenix driver?? $ Any help would be appreciated. Pull out your manual for the CMS drive. In it you will find a phone number for CMS. Call it. They will sell you a driver for $50. Why post on Usenet before calling the company to see if they have one? j |%|John Lawitzke, Dale Computer Corp., R&D |%|UUCP: uunet!frith!dale1!jhl Work |%| uunet!frith!ipecac!jhl Home Inquiring minds just wondering. |%|Internet: jhl@frith.egr.msu.edu
mike@antel.uucp (Michael Borza) (03/14/90)
In article <6863@cps3xx.UUCP> usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) writes: >From article <10622@ttidca.TTI.COM>, by goroff@kashmir.TTI.COM (Marc Goroff): >$ I am thinking about using a Colorado Memory Systems 40Mbyte tape drive >$ as a cheap ($240) backup device for my 386 SysV box at home. It is an >$ internal drive that sits on a floppy disk controller. CMS claims >$ to have a driver for Xenix, but not Unix. Does anybody have a driver for >$ this unit under SysV, or perhaps source code to the Xenix driver?? >$ Any help would be appreciated. > >Pull out your manual for the CMS drive. In it you will find a phone >number for CMS. Call it. They will sell you a driver for $50. Why post >on Usenet before calling the company to see if they have one? hmmm, let's see here. He's thinking about using one for his machine at home. He may not yet own one, ergo he may not already have the manual for it. Now he says, "CMS claims to have a driver for Xenix, but not UNIX". Sounds to me like he's been in touch with CMS, or possibly a dealer. Finally, he asks a seemingly reasonable question "Does anybody have a driver for SysV?", followed by a (some may argue) less reasonable question "Does anyone have source to the Xenix driver?" I fail to see why someone who has already demonstrated (or at least gives the impression of) a reasonable amount of diligence in getting answers to his questions through more normal channels should be the victim of your (mild) flame. Would you rather that he posted a list of the names, dates, phone numbers, and verbatim responses he received so that we may properly judge whether he be chastised here? >Why post on Usenet before calling the company to see if they have one? Why flame on Usenet before reading the original post with a critical eye? >j |%|John Lawitzke, Dale Computer Corp., R&D mike borza. -- Michael Borza Antel Optronics Inc. (416)335-5507 3325B Mainway, Burlington, Ont., Canada L7M 1A6 work: mike@antel.UUCP or uunet!utai!utgpu!maccs!antel!mike home: mike@boopsy.UUCP or uunet!utai!utgpu!maccs!boopsy!mike
mark@promark.UUCP (Mark J. DeFilippis) (03/19/90)
In article <6863@cps3xx.UUCP>, usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) writes: > From article <10622@ttidca.TTI.COM>, by goroff@kashmir.TTI.COM (Marc Goroff): > $ I am thinking about using a Colorado Memory Systems 40Mbyte tape drive > $ as a cheap ($240) backup device for my 386 SysV box at home. It is an > $ internal drive that sits on a floppy disk controller. CMS claims > $ to have a driver for Xenix, but not Unix. Does anybody have a driver for > $ this unit under SysV, or perhaps source code to the Xenix driver?? Just a note. We have 6 - 8 of these drives at various locations/clients. The first drivers we got were ver 2.02. Problem... The kernel paniced and crashed abruptly. The tapes would write fine, but when you read them back, they crash with an error 12. The manual states this is related to the Reed-Solomon ECC. In any case, a few months ago I called yelling about the problem. It existed on 4 different manufacturer's 386 boards, two flavors of Xenix, and 3 versions of xenix. All exhibit the same problem. Roger Arnold, the head of tech support sent me drivers 2.07 to fix the problem after they finally admited they had a problem. Well, over a year later and it still crashes 70% of the time. The manual states with the advanced Reed-Solomon ECC that the chance of error is 1 in 300000 tapes. We find the chance of crash to be 3 out of 5 tapes on all of these machines. Ironic that we got these JUMBO drives after we thought the crash problem with the now extinct XR4 drives they used to make was due to hardware problems. So... After almost 3 years, their drivers are still buggy. You think they would hire a guy that knows how to write device drivers. In the past, I had requested from now ex-employee Steve Macklyn all the device info so we could write our own drivers, but they said they had a bad experience with that once before and would not provide me with the info. Several people/clients we deal with have finally realized that cheap backup that works 30% of the time is no backup at all and I have switched them to Archive 150 meg drives which work on the SCO supplied drivers, thus eliminating the need for a third party driver. It is a shame because we are talking major DC2000 tape investment all down the tubes. Of the clients that are replacing the drives, they are dumping a $250 drive, but over $800 -$1000 in tapes. Thats the cost of the Archive drive! I also note here that we have never had a drive fail due to hardware. So if they ever hire a decent guy to write the drivers, they will make a lot of people happy. -- Mark J. DeFilippis SA @ Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530 (516) 663-1170 UUCP: philabs!sbcs!bnlux0!adelphi!markd
morris@dms.UUCP (Jim Morris) (03/20/90)
From article <2321@promark.UUCP>, by mark@promark.UUCP (Mark J. DeFilippis): > > Just a note. We have 6 - 8 of these drives at various locations/clients. > The first drivers we got were ver 2.02. Problem... The kernel paniced > and crashed abruptly. The tapes would write fine, but when you read them > back, they crash with an error 12. The manual states this is related to > the Reed-Solomon ECC. In any case, a few months ago I called yelling > about the problem. It existed on 4 different manufacturer's 386 boards, > two flavors of Xenix, and 3 versions of xenix. All exhibit the same > problem. > I have a Jumbo tape drive running on Xenix 2.3.2 Using the 'standard" QIC-40 driver supplied with Xenix. It seens to work fine. I have never had a crash, although I do get an error the first time the drive is accessed after a boot. After that error everything works fine. I don't doubt that CMS's driver is buggy but if you can use the one supplied with Xenix what is the incentive for them to fix it?? :>) It would be nice if they would supply enough info for us to write our own drivers, but like everyone else who tried, I was told that they could not supply any info. I really don't like dealing with a company that is so uncooperative, I probably won't buy any more of their drives because of that. It is worth paying extra to deal with a responsive company!! Anybody know of a "responsive" tape drive manufacturer??? -- Jim Morris. {motcsd|weitek}!dms!morris or morris@dms.UUCP Voice (408) 434-3798 Atari Games Corporation, 675 Sycamore Drive, Milpitas CA 95035 USA (Arcade Video Game Manufacturer, NOT Atari Corp. ST manufacturer).
erik@hpfcso.HP.COM (Erik Lode) (03/22/90)
/ hpfcso:comp.unix.i386 / goroff@kashmir.TTI.COM (Marc Goroff) / 4:38 pm Mar 7, 1990 / > I am thinking about using a Colorado Memory Systems 40Mbyte tape drive > as a cheap ($240) backup device for my 386 SysV box at home. It is an > internal drive that sits on a floppy disk controller. CMS claims > to have a driver for Xenix, but not Unix. Does anybody have a driver for > this unit under SysV, or perhaps source code to the Xenix driver?? > Any help would be appreciated. > ------------------------------- > Marc Goroff goroff@kashmir.tti.com > CitiCorp Transaction Technology Inc. or mhg@theory3.caltech.edu > Santa Monica, CA > ---------- Hello, my name is Matt Nelson I am the Unix/Xenix Specialist for Customer Support at Colorado Memory Systems. In response to your question, We have been distributing our own xenix driver for about ten months and have ruffly 5000 xenix users in the field at this time many of which are very happy and who back up every day. As to the question about SysV many of the various versions are currently under Beta Test and we plan to release these versions sometime in May. This Unix driver for the Colorado Memory Systems tape drive will be fully menu driven. The driver also conforms to the QIC-117 and QIC-40 standards. Unix versions that are being tested and released are: SCO, AT&T, 386ix Interactive, and Intel. Any further discussion and or questions please address to me at Colorado Memory Systems by phone or US Mail: Colorado Memory Systems Matt Nelson, Support Engineer 800 S. Taft Loveland, CO 80537 Voice: 800-432-5858 ext. 533
erik@hpfcso.HP.COM (Erik Lode) (03/22/90)
> / hpfcso:comp.unix.i386 / mark@promark.UUCP (Mark J. DeFilippis) / 11:09 pm Mar 18, 1990 / > In article <6863@cps3xx.UUCP>, usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) writes: > Just a note. We have 6 - 8 of these drives at various locations/clients. > The first drivers we got were ver 2.02. Problem... The kernel paniced > and crashed abruptly. The tapes would write fine, but when you read them > back, they crash with an error 12. The manual states this is related to > the Reed-Solomon ECC. In any case, a few months ago I called yelling > about the problem. It existed on 4 different manufacturer's 386 boards, > two flavors of Xenix, and 3 versions of xenix. All exhibit the same > problem. > Roger Arnold, the head of tech support sent me drivers 2.07 to fix the problem > after they finally admited they had a problem. Well, over a year later and > it still crashes 70% of the time. The manual states with the advanced > Reed-Solomon ECC that the chance of error is 1 in 300000 tapes. We find the > chance of crash to be 3 out of 5 tapes on all of these machines. > Ironic that we got these JUMBO drives after we thought the crash problem > with the now extinct XR4 drives they used to make was due to hardware problems. > So... After almost 3 years, their drivers are still buggy. You think they > would hire a guy that knows how to write device drivers. In the past, > I had requested from now ex-employee Steve Macklyn all the device info > so we could write our own drivers, but they said they had a bad experience > with that once before and would not provide me with the info. > Several people/clients we deal with have finally realized that cheap backup > that works 30% of the time is no backup at all and I have switched them to > Archive 150 meg drives which work on the SCO supplied drivers, thus > eliminating the need for a third party driver. > It is a shame because we are talking major DC2000 tape investment all down > the tubes. Of the clients that are replacing the drives, they are dumping > a $250 drive, but over $800 -$1000 in tapes. Thats the cost of the Archive > drive! I also note here that we have never had a drive fail due to hardware. > So if they ever hire a decent guy to write the drivers, they will make a lot > of people happy. > -- > Mark J. DeFilippis > SA @ Department of Mathematics and Computer Science > Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530 (516) 663-1170 > UUCP: philabs!sbcs!bnlux0!adelphi!markd > ---------- Hello Mr. DeFilippis, This is Matt Nelson from Colorado Memory Systems. In responce to your not so well stated letter, I would like to make your aware of how many users we have in the field who backed-up every day and have not experienced your problem. Colorado Memory Systems has roughly 5000 users of the xenix driver and over 250000 drives in the feild. As to your specific problem we are trying to duplicate your situation at Colorado Memory Systems right now to figure out how to help you. Colorado Memory Systems wants to here of any problems if they result so that we may conclude what is the "true" cause. From this conclusion we will take any action nessesary to help you. As to questions about either Unix or Xenix and Colorado Memory Systems tape back-ups please feel free to call me, Matt Nelson at 800-432-585 ____________ Colorado Memory Systems Matt Nelson, Support Engineer 800 S. College Loveland, CO 80537 voice: 800-432-5858
erik@hpfcso.HP.COM (Erik Lode) (03/22/90)
/ hpfcso:comp.unix.i386 / morris@dms.UUCP (Jim Morris) / 11:25 am Mar 19, 1990 / > From article <2321@promark.UUCP>, by mark@promark.UUCP (Mark J. DeFilippis): > > > > Just a note. We have 6 - 8 of these drives at various locations/clients. > > The first drivers we got were ver 2.02. Problem... The kernel paniced > > and crashed abruptly. The tapes would write fine, but when you read them > > back, they crash with an error 12. The manual states this is related to > > the Reed-Solomon ECC. In any case, a few months ago I called yelling > > about the problem. It existed on 4 different manufacturer's 386 boards, > > two flavors of Xenix, and 3 versions of xenix. All exhibit the same > > problem. > > > I have a Jumbo tape drive running on Xenix 2.3.2 Using the 'standard" QIC-40 > driver supplied with Xenix. It seens to work fine. I have never had a crash, > although I do get an error the first time the drive is accessed after a boot. > After that error everything works fine. I don't doubt that CMS's driver is buggy > but if you can use the one supplied with Xenix what is the incentive for them > to fix it?? :>) > It would be nice if they would supply enough info for us to write our > own drivers, but like everyone else who tried, I was told that they could not > supply any info. I really don't like dealing with a company that is so > uncooperative, I probably won't buy any more of their drives because of that. > It is worth paying extra to deal with a responsive company!! > Anybody know of a "responsive" tape drive manufacturer??? > -- > Jim Morris. {motcsd|weitek}!dms!morris or morris@dms.UUCP > Voice (408) 434-3798 > Atari Games Corporation, 675 Sycamore Drive, Milpitas CA 95035 USA > (Arcade Video Game Manufacturer, NOT Atari Corp. ST manufacturer). > ---------- Hello Mr.Morris, Here is the info you wanted on who to write or call to write your own driver: Quarter Inch Cartridge Drive Standards, Inc. 311 East Camarillo St. Santa Barbra, CA 93101 Voice: 805-963-3853 Fax: 805-962-1541 simply ask for the QIC-117 and QIC-40 spec's. Any futher information on writing or on Colorado Memory Systems Xeinx driver please call Matt Nelson at 800-432-5858. _____________ Colorado Memory Systems Matt Nelson, Support Engineer 800 S. Taft Loveland, CO 80537 Voice: 800-432-5858
campbell@Thalatta.COM (Bill Campbell) (03/22/90)
In article <7350008@hpfcso.HP.COM> erik@hpfcso.HP.COM (Erik Lode) writes: >> It is worth paying extra to deal with a responsive company!! >> Anybody know of a "responsive" tape drive manufacturer??? > >> -- >> Jim Morris. {motcsd|weitek}!dms!morris or morris@dms.UUCP >> Voice (408) 434-3798 >> Atari Games Corporation, 675 Sycamore Drive, Milpitas CA 95035 USA >> (Arcade Video Game Manufacturer, NOT Atari Corp. ST manufacturer). Not to add to the flames, but I have been using the CMS Jumbo drives for some time now with generally very satisfactory results *SO LONG AS THE TAPES ARE FORMATTED AND USED ON THE SAME DRIVES*! Just today I was installing a new machine and dumped my 170Meg hard disk to tape on my old system and went to reload on the new one. I started getting corrupted super blocks and the system would go Tango Uniform just trying to get a list of files from the tape (tar -tvf /dev/rmt0) After trying several different combinations and permutations of tapes and drives (It was new machine remember), I finally determined that the problem is most like drive alignment. My conclusion is that while these are OK for a single system backup they probably won't hack it for general data interchange, sigh... -- ....microsoft--\ Bill Campbell; Celestial Software ...uw-beaver-----!thebes!camco!bill 6641 East Mercer Way ....fluke------/ Mercer Island, Wa 98040 ....hplsla----/ (206) 232-4164
tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) (03/22/90)
In article <7350007@hpfcso.HP.COM> erik@hpfcso.HP.COM (Matt Nelson) writes: >Hello Mr. DeFilippis, >This is Matt Nelson from Colorado Memory Systems. In responce to your not >so well stated letter, I would like to make your aware of how many users we >have in the field who backed-up every day ... 1. News is not mail. 2. Snottiness is not good customer relations, in private or in public. -- Psychoanalysis is the mental illness \\\ Tom Neff it purports to cure. -- Karl Kraus \\\ tneff@bfmn0.UU.NET