Magnetic tape filesystem

[Ali]

> Streamer drives are singularly awkward (although as I mentioned, one of
> the QIC vendors implemented a "virtual disk" system for the PC
> (Archive, Seagate...I don't recall

There were a couple of solutions for the PC:

1. Direct Tape Access by Seagate (which was later sold off to VERITAS). If I recall correctly this was a Windows only solution and worked under win 3.x/Win 95. There never was an update for Win98 and on.

2. TapeDisk - This worked under DOS (was a DOS device driver) and so continued to work, with updates, through Win Me. The publishers were perpetually going to offer a Win2K/NT version which never materialized and the company finally went bankrupt.

3. DATMan - Was limited to DAT drives so never gained any traction (if you could even say the above SW had traction). This is made by the same guys as XXCopy and I think they are still around.

I am sure I am missing a few here and there. I used both DTA and TapeDisk. DTA was easier and more "elegant" but never updated. I switched over to TapeDisk when I got a Conner/Seagate T-Stor 8000 4GB of "Random Access" Whoohoo! ;) 

-Ali