stdtm@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Timothy A. Melton) (01/11/91)
I have just installed a Wangtech QIC-60 Tape drive and controller on my ESIX rev. D system. The drive seems to work fine under DOS, but when I use cpio (or /usr/bin/backup) to write a tape and then read it back in, I get numerous "Out of sync. Searching for magic number/header" messages. What could be the problem? I believe that the drive and controller are fine (they seem to work great under DOS). Why am I getting these errors? Am I losing files for each error? I have recovered the last file from a backup tape, but I was wondering if I might be losing other files on the tape. Sorry if this has been hashed over before, but I haven't seen an FAQ posting in the last month or 2. Thanks in advance, Tim -- ____________________________________________________________________________ Timothy A Melton University of Oklahoma stdtm@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu Department of Chemical Engineering
mschedlb@hawk.ulowell.edu (Martin J. Schedlbauer) (01/13/91)
In article <1991Jan11.034524.21413@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> stdtm@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Timothy A. Melton) writes: >I have just installed a Wangtech QIC-60 Tape drive and controller on my >ESIX rev. D system. The drive seems to work fine under DOS, but when I >use cpio (or /usr/bin/backup) to write a tape and then read it back in, I >get numerous "Out of sync. Searching for magic number/header" messages. >What could be the problem? I believe that the drive and controller are >fine (they seem to work great under DOS). Why am I getting these errors? >Am I losing files for each error? I have recovered the last file from a >backup tape, but I was wondering if I might be losing other files on the >tape. Sorry if this has been hashed over before, but I haven't seen an FAQ >posting in the last month or 2. > Finally somebody who also has that problem!! You can still make backups but use /dev/rmt/c2s0 instead of /dev/rmt/c0s0. The problem may be caused by several factors: 1. You have another device that uses the same IRQ as teh tape controller. 2. If you have a VGA card disable it's use of the IRQ2 for EGA compatibilty. 3. You motherboards DMA chip is hosed, most likely it can't handle more than one open DMA channel at one time. You can still read ALL tapes with the fast /dev/rmt/c0s0, but you should write them only with /dev/rmt/c2s0. I also recomment using GNU tar and cpio, but be sure you rename GNU cpio to soemthing likegnu-cpio as installpkg will barf otherwise. ...Martin Martin Schedlbauer (mschedlb@ulowell.edu) Institute for Visualization and Perception Research Department of Computer Science University of Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854 (Tel: (508) 934-3612)
john@karnak.cactus.org (John B. Meaders Jr.) (01/14/91)
In article <1701@ulowell.ulowell.edu> mschedlb@hawk.ulowell.edu (Martin J. Schedlbauer) writes: > >Finally somebody who also has that problem!! You can still make backups >but use /dev/rmt/c2s0 instead of /dev/rmt/c0s0. The problem may be caused >by several factors: Nice to see I am not the only person with problems. I have an Archive FT-60 that used to work under Esix. Now it doesn't (I fear a bad controller). It still reads (I have an old tape) and appears to write. However, when you read you get garbage. >You can still read ALL tapes with the fast /dev/rmt/c0s0, but you should >write them only with /dev/rmt/c2s0. I also recomment using GNU tar and >cpio, but be sure you rename GNU cpio to soemthing likegnu-cpio as >installpkg will barf otherwise. I don't have /dev/rmt/c2s0. I am using the Archive AT&T Unix drivers as the Esix Everex drivers don't work properly with the FT-60. I will check for interrupt bashing, but I am pretty sure that is not the problem. -- John B. Meaders, Jr. 510 Manchester Ct., Hopewell, VA 23860 Voice: 804-458-2983 Net: john@karnak.cactus.org or john@karnak.sigma.com Uucp: ...!{sequoia,letni,ditka}!karnak!john "Cowabunga dude" - TMNT
kdenning@pcserver2.naitc.com (Karl Denninger) (01/16/91)
In article <1991Jan14.052704.23339@karnak.cactus.org> john@karnak.cactus.org (John B. Meaders Jr.) writes: >In article <1701@ulowell.ulowell.edu> mschedlb@hawk.ulowell.edu (Martin J. Schedlbauer) writes: >> >>Finally somebody who also has that problem!! You can still make backups >>but use /dev/rmt/c2s0 instead of /dev/rmt/c0s0. The problem may be caused >>by several factors: > >Nice to see I am not the only person with problems. I have an Archive >FT-60 that used to work under Esix. Now it doesn't (I fear a bad controller). >It still reads (I have an old tape) and appears to write. However, when >you read you get garbage. This is a REAL common failure mode. I lost a disk and found my backups were worthless on this one once. Fortunately, I was able to recover the data off the hard disk (another one of my horror stories). The FT60s have this problem, and it would appear only this problem. This is the only failure mode I've EVER seen on that tape drive! It's actually a controller problem -- get another controller. The problem will go away. Unfortunately, you're hosed on the data you (thought) you wrote to those tapes -- it isn't there. Now I verify ALL tapes for readability. -- Karl Denninger - AC Nielsen, Bannockburn IL (708) 317-3285 kdenning@nis.naitc.com "The most dangerous command on any computer is the carriage return." Disclaimer: The opinions here are solely mine and may or may not reflect those of the company.
richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) (01/20/91)
>This is a REAL common failure mode. I lost a disk and found my backups were >worthless on this one once. Fortunately, I was able to recover the data off >the hard disk (another one of my horror stories). A backup without a verify is not a backup. -- Richard Foulk richard@pegasus.com