davem@elandes.UUCP (Dave Mathis) (01/24/91)
I have what should be a simple problem, that should have a simple answer. But it isn't turning out that way. I have a Intel 401 (486/25) box, adaptec 1542a, 2 Maxtors and a Archive 2150 tape drive. Normally I run SysVR4, but using Dos 3.3 is where I have the problem to solve. I can get to the drives just fine, the on board BIOS does its job. To get to the tape drive, I need a device driver of some form. Fine so far. I call where I purchased the box, and ask for whatever will do this for me, even suggest that adaptec might be a good place to start. They're not interested, they have my money. I try adaptecs local distributors, they're just salesmen, the first technical word and they panic. Tried a var of one of the distributors, they said they would check into what I needed. The answer was that a ASW-1410 would solve all my problems. The tape drive would be accesible as a device and I could use pdtar and afio to my hearts content. Great. I bought it. Now what? There is not a programming/interface/techical manual available. Adaptec has either know-nothings, or people that don't return calls, or a dispatcher that won't log a call since I'm not a distributor. If anyone can offer me: 1) a way to get to the tape drive without giving adaptec any more money, since they obviously dont deserve it. or 2) an alternative SCSI controller and support software to get to the tape drive under DOS. I would really appreciate it. Dave Mathis -
wayne@teemc.UUCP (Michael R. Wayne) (01/25/91)
In article <548@elandes.UUCP> davem@elandes.UUCP (Dave Mathis) writes: > > I have a Intel 401 (486/25) box, adaptec 1542a, 2 Maxtors and a >Archive 2150 tape drive. Normally I run SysVR4, but using Dos 3.3 is where >I have the problem to solve. I can get to the drives just fine, the on >board BIOS does its job. To get to the tape drive, I need a device driver of >some form. Fine so far. > Tried a var of one of the distributors, they said they would check >into what I needed. The answer was that a ASW-1410 would solve all my >problems. The tape drive would be accesible as a device and I could use >pdtar and afio to my hearts content. You gotta buy SY-TOS, also avail from your Adaptec distributor. While I tend to agree that it's silly to have to buy 3 products to get at the drive, you gotta remember that this is the DOS market where the poor suckers will pay for EVERYTHING. SY-TOS works pretty well although I noticed that a number of options were not available until I had run my first backup. I wish Adaptec would simply put all their drivers on a BBS like many other board manufacturers do and let people download whenever they want to. I don't know what anyone could do to convince them of that though, I suspect that the marketing types would throw up their hands in horror "You mean GIVE something away for FREE? I don't CARE if the word-of-mouth advertising would sell more boards, we spent good money developing those drivers and we're going to gouge them users for what we can get!" BTW, an associate of mine has a client who is installing ~2500 systems (all using SCSI) and didn't opt for Adaptec because the drivers aren't free, there is no Archive BBS (adaptex doesn't count since you can not sign onto it, it isn't really supported by Adaptec, and there isn't SUPPORTED software on it) and there was no way to read/write tapes that were interchangable with Unix. In this case performance took a far inferior role to support and market attitude. Warning: Even with SY-TOS, you can't use tar or cpio. You get to use their own funky format (the advertised tar mode is unimplemented). I think that the DOS market has no grasp that people want to use standard, existing tools. All the s/w writers see it as a great way to make lots of $$, not as a way to help the users. Regarding the tech support from Adaptec, the only person in the whole organization that is worth anything seems to be Roy Neese (neese@adaptex). Unlike the rest of the organization, he reads Usenet and helps people with their problems. Unfortunately, he does tend to get overloaded at times and I don't think it's part of his job description so there is no guarantee of support from him (though he tries hard). I have concerns dealing with a company where nobody on the tech support line can answer my questions and are unwilling to work at obtaining answers ("Well, I guess we don't support that" is not what I want to hear). Anyway, since you have spent your money on the Adaptec, you might check into SY-TOS. If, however, you require tape interchangability with your Unix tapes, I suspect you need different hardware. If anyone has a means of reading/writing an Archive tape drive as a real device (so that pdtar, etc will work), I'd appreciate knowing about it. /\/\ \/\/ -- Michael R. Wayne --- TMC & Associates --- wayne@teemc.tmc.mi.org Operator of the only 240 Horsepower UNIX machine in Michigan