If it hasn't been used recently, it is a certainty
the capstan is goo.
No, I fixed the capstan, and I'm using brand new IOTAMAT tapes still in
the original shrink wrap, but only one drive will even certify tapes and
none of them will write them. It just faults, like you said. I have a
NOS one in box and I replaced the capstan on that but it works even worse
than the beat-up one I restored in the first place.
This is a huge PITA for me at CHM, because HP gave us
literally hundreds of
tapes. I also note the extreme lack of 914x tape images anywhere. I haven't
dug into them enough to understand even how to image them. They are block
addressable, but have file marks. This is sort of like QIC tapes, though I
haven't gotten into it far enough to know if the tape mark is an out of band
(sits between a block) or consumes one.
They're IOTAMAT. I don't know many of the format details but they come
preformatted from the factory and idiots treat them like QIC (because it's
the same form factor) and demagnetize them. Or, they send you DC600A tapes
"because they look the same."
--
------------------------------------ personal:
http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems *
www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at
floodgap.com
-- Is there another word for synonym? -----------------------------------------