144 lines
5.6 KiB
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144 lines
5.6 KiB
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<TITLE>The Ftape-FAQ: "Tape and Drivers" related questions !</TITLE>
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<H2><A NAME="s4">4. "Tape and Drivers" related questions !</A></H2>
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<P>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss4.1">4.1 What are good makers of Travan tapes?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>I was the UNIX Product Manager at Archive Corp (Prior to the Conner/Seagate
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mess) and we performed extensive tests of tape media for compatibility
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certification, including retentivity, flaking and length consistancy. Based
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on the results of the tests, we selected the best of these certified
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manufacturers' products to private label as our own media. Here is the
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order in which we selected vendors up through 1995 (when I lost contact
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with the ATI group):
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<P>
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<DL>
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<DT><B>QIC</B><DD><P>
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<OL>
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<LI> 3M (now known as Imation)</LI>
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<LI> QMaxell/Sony (tie)</LI>
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<LI> (BTW - Iomega uses Sony private-labelled media)</LI>
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</OL>
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<DT><B>4MM</B><DD><P>
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<OL>
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<LI> Fuji</LI>
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<LI> Maxell/Sony (tie - is this a trend?)</LI>
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</OL>
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<DT><B>8MM</B><DD><P>
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<OL>
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<LI> Fuji/Exabyte - which we believed to be OEM'd Fuji (tie - so much for trend!)</LI>
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<LI> Sony</LI>
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<LI> Maxell</LI>
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</OL>
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<DT><B>DLT</B><DD><P>
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<OL>
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<LI> Maxell</LI>
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<LI> Sony</LI>
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</OL>
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</DL>
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<P>Otherwise, we had entries in our search from other vendors which were
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generally a private-labelled version of one of the major labels above. The
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exceptions were Verbatim and DIC. Both of these manufacturer's media had
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fall-out rates and length discrepancies that were so high that we would not
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certify them and even warned customers about them indicating that we could
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not offer any sort of guarantee that they would get a good backup using the
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media from these manufacturers.
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<P>In addition, since coming to EST, I've found that Verbatim media is still
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not worth the money saved in purchasing it. We have 11 of their TR-Extra
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and QIC-Extra (QICXL) tapes that were useless after fewer than 20 passes each.
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<P>While this is my personal opinion, it is based on over 9 years of experience
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with this very question, I strongly recommend Imation/3M media for QIC/Travan
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user, Fuji media 4MM users, Exabyte/Fuji for 8MM and DEC labelled media
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for DLT users.
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<P><answer from Tim Jones>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss4.2">4.2 Where can I obtain the QIC standards?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>If you wish to help developing <EM>Ftape</EM>, or add some utility
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(e.g. a tape formatting program), you will need that appropriate QIC
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standards. The standard(s) to get is: QIC-80, -117, -3010, and 3020.
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QIC-117 describes how commands are sent to the tape drive (including
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timing etc), so you would probably never need it. QIC-80/3010/3020
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describes higher level part, such as tape layout, ECC code, standard
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filesystem. You can get the QIC standards from the following address:
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
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<PRE>
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Quarter Inch Cartridge Drive Standards, Inc.
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311 East Carrillo Street
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Santa Barbara, California 93101
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Phone: (805) 963-3853
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Fax: (805) 962-1541
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</PRE>
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</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>Note: They are registered as `Freeman Associates, Inc' in the phone
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book.
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<P><from the Ftape-Howto>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss4.3">4.3 Is the Iomega Ditto 2GB drive supported?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>Yes, if you are using version <CODE>ftape-3.x</CODE> or later of the <EM>Ftape
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drivers</EM> from the
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<A HREF="http://www-math.math.rwth-aachen.de/~LBFM/claus/ftape/">Ftape Home Page</A> or from
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<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/tapes">ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/tapes</A>.
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<P><answer from Tim Jones>
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<P>As the Ditto 2GB is a Tr-3 tape (though it can only store 1GB instead of the
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1.6GB you get with a regular Tr-3 drive) you need an FDC (FDC means: Floppy
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Disk Controller) that is capable of at 1Mbit/sec transfer rate. You don't need
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to worry about this if you have an accellerator card (i.e. the Ditto Dash
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controller). Otherwise try to purchase an FDC that claims to be capable of
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driving 2.88Mb floppies because this implies that the FDC is capable of 1Mbit
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transfer rate.
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<P><EM>Ftape</EM> prints the maximum data rate of the FDC to the kernel log
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files like this:
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<PRE>
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ftape-ctl.c (ftape_init_drive) - Highest FDC supported data rate: 500 Kbps.
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</PRE>
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<P><answer from Claus Heine>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss4.4">4.4 Is the Iomega Ditto Max drive supported?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>Yes, if you are using version <CODE>ftape-4.02</CODE> or later of the
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<EM>Ftape drivers</EM> from the
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<A HREF="http://www-math.math.rwth-aachen.de/~LBFM/claus/ftape/">Ftape Home Page</A> or from
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<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/tapes">ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/tapes</A>.
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<P><answer from Claus Heine>
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss4.5">4.5 Is the Iomega Ditto Max Pro drive supported?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>
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<P>Yes. But if you want to use the 5GB (10GB with compression) cartridges
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you don't need it. With <CODE>ftape</CODE> there doesn't seem to be any
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difference between the <CODE>Ditto Max</CODE> and the <CODE>Ditto Max Pro</CODE>.
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<P><answer from Claus Heine>
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<P>
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<HR>
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