levisonm@qucis.queensu.CA (Mark Levison) (01/21/91)
I have been trying to use the standard unix interface to my 1/4 inch tape drive for a couple of days now. I am using a Sun 3/80 at SunOs 4.0.3. Compared to most of the other tools on the system I find the interface a little dangerous to use. I am trying to use the tape to dump precious and semi-precious data off my disk. The two biggest problems I am having are the fact that tar has mechanism to warn you that you are overwriting an existing file and that it seems if a media error is detected I am supposed (I think) to just write an eof and skip it myself. I would be much happier if I could find a tool that keeps a record of what has been written on the tape (even if this must be kept track of off tape) and gracefully handled media problems. I recognize the difficulty of rewinding the tape "just a bit" but I would like a system where a single typo might cost me another weeks work. Thanks in advance for your help Mark Levison levisonm@qucis.queensu.ca