15 Feb
2002
15 Feb
'02
10:17 a.m.
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 17:59:40 -0500 (EST)
From: "r. 'bear' stricklin" <red(a)bears.org>
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Drive inventory
On Fri, 15 Feb 2002, Carl Lowenstein wrote:
Yes. I have a box of unreadable backup tapes and data tapes that someone
else made while under the impression that the Gigatrend was really a
working tape drive. :-(
The only Data/DAT drives I ever used (Gigatrend)
were hardly ever
compatible from one drive to another. In fact they were seldom compatible
on the same drive from month to month.
FWIW I have one of those drives. The mechanism was manufactured by JVC,
and I have not had much luck with it. I recall it being extremely
persnickety about errors on tapes, and even when I managed to get a whole
backup onto a tape without the drive going into fits, I was never able to
read that tape back to verify the data. OTOH if the tapes had to be formatted before use and
were block
addressable, that might tend to explain why I had such terrible luck using
that drive as a normal tape device under unix. What was the prescribed
method for using a tape in this drive?
Scrabbling around in the back room, he finds the Gigatrend 1230 Operators
Manual. From Appendix B:
Press ONLINE to go offline
Press TEST to get to menu -- you want level 1.
Press SETUP to increment displayed digit
Press ONLINE to enter that level
In level 1 you want function 1
Cycle through digits with SETUP
Press ONLINE to select format function using default values.
Lights will blink "FFFF"
Insert tape and press ONLINE to activate format operation.
Simple, isn't it. I think I got it all correctly summarized from the manual.
If you want a copy of Appendix B TEST PROCEDURES it is only 8 pages.
Send me a postal address.
carl
--
carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego
clowenstein(a)ucsd.edu