annala@neuro.usc.edu (A J Annala) (12/25/90)
I have an Archive VP150i DC600XTD cartridge tape drive attached to my 33-Mhz 8-MB SCO-SYSV/386-3.2.0 UNIX box for backup and data transfer. I also have a standard DC300 60 MB cartridge tape drive attached to a very old SUN-III/160C SUNOS-4.0.3 UNIX box for similar purposes. Could someone explain the differences between each of the QIC-nn tape formats -- and possibly suggest an appropriate format to support data interchange between as many systems as possible? Is there a lowest common denominator format which can be read by most operating systems and cartridge tape drives? Thanks, AJ Annala
davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) (12/26/90)
In article <29008@usc> annala@neuro.usc.edu (A J Annala) writes: | Could someone explain the differences between each of the QIC-nn tape | formats -- and possibly suggest an appropriate format to support data | interchange between as many systems as possible? Is there a lowest | common denominator format which can be read by most operating systems | and cartridge tape drives? I will beg off on the first part, I don't understand well enough to explain it, and parts of it I don't understand at all. There are three sets of standards somehow, one for what's written on the tape (tape interchangability), one for the interface between the drive and controller (hardware interchangability), and one for the way the controller appears to the driver. I can tell you that a 60MB QIC-24 format tape seems to be the best bet for interchange. It can be written by Sun as rst8 (*not* rst0), and is supported by Xenix and most 3.2 and V.4 drives of 60, 125, and 150MB rating. I've written tapes on my Wangtek 60MB and read them on Sun, Wantek 5125 with Scorpion (I think controller), SCSI Wangtek under V.4, etc. That's the one to write is you want to have other read it. -- bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen) sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me
evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) (12/27/90)
In article <2734@sixhub.UUCP> davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes: > I can tell you that a 60MB QIC-24 format tape seems to be the best bet >for interchange. It can be written by Sun as rst8 (*not* rst0), and is >supported by Xenix and most 3.2 and V.4 drives of 60, 125, and 150MB >rating. I've written tapes on my Wangtek 60MB and read them on Sun, >Wantek 5125 with Scorpion (I think controller), SCSI Wangtek under V.4, >etc. Just watch out for the tradeoffs. A 60MB QIC-24 can be considered the "universal writer", because it can write tapes readable by most systems that take that size cartridge. However, it cannot read tapes made by an increasing number of systems with 125MB or 150MB tape units. On the other hand, a QIC-150 unit should be able to READ anything, even though what it writes can only be read by other 150s. Which brings me to my own two questions, one of which is related: a) Does there exist anywhere, a 125MB or 150MB QIC tape drive (controller, and associated UNIX driver) that can *WRITE* 60MB tapes as weel as read them? b) Why does it seem like SCSI QIC tape drives are universally more expensive than Wangtek-based subsystems *including the controller*? While I've been shopping and listening to the experiences of others, I've heard that Archive SCSI QIC drives are noticably more expensive than their Wanktek counterparts, and are also porrly documented. Two people I know who bought Archive SCSI tapes were not even given instructions on how to set the drives' SCSI address or where the terminating resistors are! (Yes, usually these things seem obvious, but I don't like assuming how to do the setup in lieu of real docs.) -- Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario evan@telly.on.ca / uunet!attcan!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504 In PEI they don't allow abortions, yet they're building one - the GST centre
lerman@stpstn.UUCP (Ken Lerman) (12/28/90)
In article <2778D4B0.39B9@telly.on.ca> evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) writes:
. than their Wanktek counterparts, and are also porrly documented. Two
. people I know who bought Archive SCSI tapes were not even given
. instructions on how to set the drives' SCSI address or where the
. terminating resistors are! (Yes, usually these things seem obvious,
. but I don't like assuming how to do the setup in lieu of real docs.)
.
.--
. Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
. evan@telly.on.ca / uunet!attcan!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504
.In PEI they don't allow abortions, yet they're building one - the GST centre
I'm a third person who got my Archive SCSI tape without documentation.
When I buy a product like that at what appears to be a very good
price, I assume that the reason it has no documentation is because
some OEM bought a bunch of them to ostensibly incorporate them into
products and is reselling them to end users. An OEM doesn't have any
use for hundreds of copies of the same documentation so the products
are shipped without them.
Aside from some initial trepidation when I realized what I had bought,
I've been very happy with the tape drive.
Kenbarton@holston.UUCP (Barton A. Fisk) (12/29/90)
In article <2778D4B0.39B9@telly.on.ca> evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) writes: >In article <2734@sixhub.UUCP> davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes: > >> I can tell you that a 60MB QIC-24 format tape seems to be the best bet >>for interchange. It can be written by Sun as rst8 (*not* rst0), and is > I agree, my QIC 320/525MB drive reads the QIC 24 tapes quite well. >b) Why does it seem like SCSI QIC tape drives are universally more > expensive than Wangtek-based subsystems *including the controller*? I assume you mean SCSI QIC drives vs QIC-36 or QIC-02 interfaces. The SCSI includes a controller on the drive as well. Wangtek also makes SCSI tape drives. The whole idea behind SCSI is that you need not concern yourself about the interface between the controller and the device (what ever it may be). As long as it talks to the SCSI adaptor (bus) correctly it should work. Some premium has to be put on this "plug and play" convenience. -- uucp: holston!barton pseudo: barton@holston.UUCP
larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) (12/29/90)
lerman@stpstn.UUCP (Ken Lerman) writes: >I'm a third person who got my Archive SCSI tape without documentation. Likewise, I picked up my 2150S from Tech Data - without documentation. I called Archive - and they told me that they never ship documentation with their drives (the 2150S family that is). -- Larry Snyder, Northern Star Communications, Notre Dame, IN USA {larry@nstar.rn.com, uunet!nstar!larry, larry%nstar@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu} backbone usenet newsfeeds available Public Access Unix Site (219) 289-0282 (5 high speed lines)
ler@lerami.lonestar.org (Larry Rosenman) (12/30/90)
In article <1990Dec29.132640.370@nstar.rn.com>, larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes: >lerman@stpstn.UUCP (Ken Lerman) writes: > >>I'm a third person who got my Archive SCSI tape without documentation. > >Likewise, I picked up my 2150S from Tech Data - without documentation. > >I called Archive - and they told me that they never ship documentation >with their drives (the 2150S family that is). Grr... They also charge $25 for the book...... I wish Hardware vendors would at least ship doc with devices, just like S/W vendors have to. -- Larry Rosenman INTERNET: ler@lerami.lonestar.org UUCP: uunet!letni!lerami!ler BIX: ler CIS: 73547,3201 PLINK: LER GEnie: LEROSENMAN ATT: +1 214-399-0210 (Voice) US Mail: 900 Lake Isle Circle, Irving, Texas 75060-7709
billsey@agora.uucp (Bill Seymour) (12/30/90)
In article <1990Dec29.132640.370@nstar.rn.com> larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes: :lerman@stpstn.UUCP (Ken Lerman) writes: ::I'm a third person who got my Archive SCSI tape without documentation. : :Likewise, I picked up my 2150S from Tech Data - without documentation. : :I called Archive - and they told me that they never ship documentation :with their drives (the 2150S family that is). Same thing here... I had to pay extra for the docs for the 2150S I originally bought for our XENIX machine at work. I include (when I can remember to...) a few pages with the jumper settings, mechanical data and interface data for the refurbished 2150S drives I've been selling, but that's only because of what I went through with that first one, before I had any docs. : Larry Snyder, Northern Star Communications, Notre Dame, IN USA : {larry@nstar.rn.com, uunet!nstar!larry, larry%nstar@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu} : backbone usenet newsfeeds available : Public Access Unix Site (219) 289-0282 (5 high speed lines) BTW, I still have three of the refurbished drives left... If anyone wants one, please let me know soon. $450 each. -- -Bill Seymour billsey@agora ***** American People/Link Amiga Zone Hardware Specialist NES*BILL ***** Bejed, Inc. NES, Inc. Northwest Amiga Group At Home Sometimes (503) 281-8153 (503) 246-9311 (503) 656-7393 BBS (503) 640-0842
pdg@chinet.chi.il.us (Paul Guthrie) (12/30/90)
In article <2778D4B0.39B9@telly.on.ca> evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) writes: >a) Does there exist anywhere, a 125MB or 150MB QIC tape drive (controller, > and associated UNIX driver) that can *WRITE* 60MB tapes as weel as > read them? Not that I have seen. To solve this problem, we added an Archive 2150ES (can write 125 and 150s, and read 60, 125 and 150s), to our existing Adaptec SCSI setup, and a Wangtek 60 megger (for ~$250) just for writing 60 and 45 Meg tapes for our software products. The only nasty thing about this is that the Wangtek has its own controller, eating up a valuable slot. -- Paul Guthrie chinet!nsacray!paul or pdg@balr.com or attmail!balr!pdg
pdg@chinet.chi.il.us (Paul Guthrie) (12/30/90)
In article <1990Dec29.132640.370@nstar.rn.com> larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes: >Likewise, I picked up my 2150S from Tech Data - without documentation. >I called Archive - and they told me that they never ship documentation >with their drives (the 2150S family that is). Funny, our Archive dealer sent me the 100 page viper product manual at no extra cost. You could probably get it from Archive spare parts, but beware of their "minimum purchase" rule. I've got a zillion spare tape belts from a firmware upgrade a while back :-). -- Paul Guthrie chinet!nsacray!paul or pdg@balr.com or attmail!balr!pdg
stromstedt01@lne.kth.se (Jesper Karlsson) (12/31/90)
Sorry to post on the net, but I wasn't able to mail. Bill, I would be interested in one of your Archive SCSI-tapedrives. Could you please mail me some info and your complete E-mail address?
larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) (12/31/90)
pdg@chinet.chi.il.us (Paul Guthrie) writes: >In article <2778D4B0.39B9@telly.on.ca> evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) writes: >>a) Does there exist anywhere, a 125MB or 150MB QIC tape drive (controller, >> and associated UNIX driver) that can *WRITE* 60MB tapes as weel as >> read them? >Not that I have seen. To solve this problem, we added an Archive >2150ES (can write 125 and 150s, and read 60, 125 and 150s), to our >existing Adaptec SCSI setup, and a Wangtek 60 megger (for ~$250) just >for writing 60 and 45 Meg tapes for our software products. The only >nasty thing about this is that the Wangtek has its own controller, >eating up a valuable slot. I wonder if Interactive Unix would support multiple SCSI tape drives - say a 2150S along with a 60 meg streamer - on one system using the same 1542b controller? -- Larry Snyder, Northern Star Communications, Notre Dame, IN USA {larry@nstar.rn.com, uunet!nstar!larry, larry%nstar@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu} backbone usenet newsfeeds available Public Access Unix Site (219) 289-0282 (5 high speed lines)
sralston@srwic.UUCP (Steve Ralston) (01/02/91)
In article <1990Dec30.204604.14970@nstar.rn.com> larry@nstar.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes: >I wonder if Interactive Unix would support multiple SCSI tape drives - >say a 2150S along with a 60 meg streamer - on one system using the >same 1542b controller? I don't know about ISC, but I have tested up to seven SCSI devices (concurrently!) on SCO UNIX systems (4 disks + 3 tapes, & 3 disks + 4 tapes). It's pretty awesome to watch all those SCSI access lights blinking across seven devices! You can't do much *else* with the system, once you fire up all that I/O, but quite impressive, none the less. FYI: For the curious, testing was performed on NCR PC's (microchannel) with NCR SCSI host adapters running a port of SCO UNIX w/ NCR Common SCSI drivers. Though we didn't test the same configuration on stock SCO UNIX with Adaptec 154x/164x SCSI host adapters, it should [theoretically] work, as well. That's what SCSI is all about! Disk/Tape hardware was a combination of: (all SCSI devices, of course) Disks: Seagate WREN IV 380 Mb (FH), Seagate WREN VI 380 Mb (HH), Maxtor 8760S 760 Mb (FH), Seagate WREN VII 1.2 Gb (FH) Tapes: Archive Viper 150 Mb QIC (HH), Wangtek 525 Mb QIC (HH), Exabyte 2.3 Gb 8mm (FH) -- Steve Ralston sralston@srwic.UUCP 235 N Zelta voice: 316-686-2019 Wichita, KS 67206 ..!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrwic!srwic!sralston