8 mm tapes

--- On Thu, 9/23/10, Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org> wrote: I pretty regularly use video tapes in Exabyte 8200 drives on my Prime computers. The 8200 drives only store 2.5 gig per tape, and don't seem to be very picky about what tape they use. Length is not important either - it'll just write until it runs out of tape, there is no form of tape length accounting with these drives. I've found that the Fuji brand 8mm video tape (available at the grocery store) works just fine in the 8200 drives. I don't know if the 8500's are pickier or not. I've found the Exabyte drives to be "pretty reliable". They're not as reliable as nine track drives, but they are a lot more convenient. I run into less problems with the tape media than I do with the interface between the drive and the computer, but that's really more of an idiosyncrasy of the Prime SCSI controller than the drive itself - although it is possible to get an 8200 into a weird mode where it's just hung up and won't eject. -Ian