rhealey@kas.helios.mn.org (Rob Healey) (06/08/91)
Does anybody know if the SCSI tape unit, 3070, is capable of doing 60M format reads? Damn inconvenient if the hardware can't... Will UNIX support a SCSI tape unit, Archive maybe, that WILL do 60M/150M? -Rob
crash@ckctpa.UUCP (Frank J. Edwards) (06/12/91)
In article <211@kas.helios.mn.org> rhealey@kas.helios.mn.org (Rob Healey) writes: > Does anybody know if the SCSI tape unit, 3070, is > capable of doing 60M format reads? Damn inconvenient if the > hardware can't... Hmmm. Most 120M/150M tape drives that I've dealt with (oh, maybe half a dozen) will also READ 60M tapes, but won't write them (it will write 120M format on low density tapes but you don't want to do this -- read on). As attractive as this may seem to be, you DO NOT want to consistently put the 60M tapes into the higher density tape drives. As a techie from #m described it (paraphrased), "the 60M tape media is much more coarse/brittle than the high density tapes and will eventually destroy the tape heads". Estimated elapsed usage time on the head before repair: 1000 hours worth of READ's (it takes ~23 minutes to seek all the way through 9 tracks of data on a 600' tape, ie. 2:20 seconds per track). > ................ Will UNIX support a SCSI tape unit, Archive > maybe, that WILL do 60M/150M? > > -Rob My Archive Viper 2150S (120M/150M SCSI tape drive) will read 60M format tapes. I have read such tapes, immediately transporting the data over a network and onto another tape at 150M format. Under AmigaDOS I have no problem selecting tape format, although the Viper is intelligent enough to determine the proper format itself during read operations. Under Amix, only the 120M and 150M formats are currently supported (V1.1). I hope this helps. If you've got other questions, you may consider reading comp.periphs.scsi since there was recently a discussion concerning SCSI tape drives and compatibility issues, including the 8mm drives. -- Frank J. Edwards | "I did make up my own mind -- there 2677 Arjay Court | simply WASN'T ANY OTHER choice!" Palm Harbor, FL 34684-4504 | -- Me Phone (813) 786-3675 (voice) | Only Amiga Makes It Possible...
sysop@insider.zer.sub.org (06/13/91)
> Does anybody know if the SCSI tape unit, 3070, is > capable of doing 60M format reads? Damn inconvenient if the > hardware can't... Will UNIX support a SCSI tape unit, Archive > maybe, that WILL do 60M/150M? Actually, I can't speek for the streamer C= uses in the 3070, but normally most of the 150Meg SCSI streamers using QIC150 format will also read 60 Meg tapes. And, the driver couldn't care less, as all this is done by the drive. The Software only sees the raw data comming from the drive. With my Cipher, I have absolutely no problems reading 60Meg Apollo written Tar tapes (under AmigaDOS, still waiting for the current AmigaUnix release...) Amiga - What else ? | Garry Glendown The Insider HST/V32b +49 (0)6621-77923 // | UUCP: cbmvax!cbmger!insider!garry Fido: 2:243/43.999 // | garry@fulmin.rhoen.sub.org Garry@DGIHRZ01.BITNET \X/ | Zerberus: SYSOP@INSIDER.ZER --- SysOp @ INSIDER -- Am Anfang war das Wort ... und dann kam TeX!