Are old SCSI tape drives not all created equal?

[Mike Stein]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <js at cimmeri.com>
To: <General at classiccmp.org>; "Discussion at classiccmp.org:On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2016 4:04 PM
Subject: Re: Are old SCSI tape drives not all created equal?


> 
> Hi, Mike.  See further below where I mention Bart Lagerweij's
> SCSI Tool Utility (an MSDOS program) with the drive connected
> to a PC.
> 
> - John
---------------------------

Thanks very much, John; missed it first time around.

I've got a pile of SCSI tape & disk drives that I'd like to sort through one day; sounds like this'll at least give me a basic dead/alive indication.

m


> 
> 
> On 8/21/2016 12:34 PM, Mike Stein wrote:
>> What are you using to send/receive the commands?
>>
>> m
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From:<js at cimmeri.com>
>> To:<General at classiccmp.org>; "Discussion at classiccmp.org:On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2016 1:12 PM
>> Subject: Re: Are old SCSI tape drives not all created equal?
>>
>>
>>>
>>> On 8/19/2016 1:08 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>>>> On 08/19/2016 09:24 AM, js at cimmeri.com wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Where might I find information on how to form SCSI command data
>>>>> blocks so as to try the above commands?   I sent just an "01" to the
>>>>> TEAC MT-2ST, and it did rewind..
>>>> John, what's your working OS platform?  For fooling with SCSI, the ASPI
>>>> interface of MS-DOS is pretty straightforward--and easy to use.
>>> Chuck, for the purposes of testing the Teac drive, I'm using MSDOS on a 486 PC platform with an Adaptec SCSI interface.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> http://ftp.isu.edu.tw/pub/Hardware/ADAPTEC/adaptec/aspi_dos.txt
>>>>
>>>> ..and if you goof up, just hit the RESET button and you're back in
>>>> business in a few seconds.
>>>>
>>>> A CDB's a CDB, so whatever you learn on DOS can easily be transfered to
>>>> other OS interfaces (SPTI, SG, CAM, etc.).
>>>>
>>>> As far as tape-drive specific commands, there's always an ANSI T10
>>>> document, but that's like trying to learn about parking regulations from
>>>> a university law library--it's probably all there, but you'll have to
>>>> plow your way through a lot of stuff.  FWIW, T10 doesn't refer to the
>>>> things as "tape drives", but "sequential access devices".  Here's a T10
>>>> draft:
>>>>
>>>> http://hackipedia.org/Hardware/SCSI/Stream%20Commands/SCSI-3%20Stream%20Commands.pdf
>>>>
>>>> By far and away, the best place to learn practical SCSI interfacing is
>>>> from vendor's manuals themselves.  One I found particularly useful was
>>>> the HP 35470 DDS drive OEM product manual.  Very clear writing style.
>>>>
>>>> Bitsavers is full of product manuals detailing exactly what and how a
>>>> product supports.
>>> Thanks very much for providing these resource links.
>>>
>>>
>>> So to recap what it is I *was* trying to do, and am *now* trying to do,
>>> for any readers that are still curious about this:
>>>
>>> I was going through various tape drives to see which would be compat with
>>> an Emulux UC07 SCSI interface on a PDP-11/34 and also a Microvax III with
>>> a CMD SCSI interface.
>>>
>>> A good -- but not guaranteed -- predictor of which drives would work, is
>>> to first see how well the tape drive will talk to Bart Lagerweij's
>>> SCSI Tool Utility (an MSDOS program) with the drive connected to a PC.
>>>
>>> I ran into problems with two drives: an OnStream ADR SC-30 and a Teac
>>> MT-2ST 60MB drive.   I was most hoping the Teac would work as it's a
>>> pretty cool little device, and is closest in vintage to the 11/34
>>> of all my tape drives except for a DEC TS05 and TSZ07.
>>>
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, I could only get the OnStream the work connected to a
>>> Windows machine -- with the right driver.  Only with the right driver,
>>> will it work with NT Backup or other software.
>>>
>>> The Teac isn't working anywhere yet, although the drive appears to
>>> be functional and is responding to a few primitives.
>>>
>>> Neither of these two drives is going to work with the 11/34, so that
>>> matter is closed.
>>>
>>>
>>> The final matter is that I'd still like to get the Teac to function
>>> with some software, just to watch it operate (you have to really like
>>> mechanical things to understand this strange fascination).  Having put
>>> some time and $ into the Teac, it'd be nice to get some reward, even
>>> if only then it gets placed on the shelf afterwards.
>>>
>>>
>>> - John
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>