Interfacing the floppy tape drive?

[Karl Swartz]

In article <1991Feb20.010206.15433 at sci.ccny.cuny.edu> jeffrey at sci.ccny.cuny.edu (Jeffrey L Bromberger) writes:
>I realize that the *real* QIC never materialized ...

That's not *quite* true.  I have one on ditka, and it's my
understanding that several others exist amongst well-known UNIX PC
sites.

However, it's definitely not production work.  The case for the drive
(which nicely matches the wedge shape of the machine itself) has an
AT&T Death Star on it but it looks like a piece of thin cardboard that
was cut from a brochure and glued onto the case.  The board itself is
reasonably clean though lacking the back-plate and handle (which I
would very much like to add on if somebody can suggest where I might
get the parts).

The good part is that the thing works, which is really nice since
ditka has both a 150 MB Maxtor XT-2190 and the original 67 MB
MiniScribe 6085 (courtesy the ICUS upgrade -- thanks Lenny and Gil!).

Question one is whether the actual drive for the old 23 MB tape is
crippled in some way or whether it's just the controller.  Could I
connect my new QIC-II controller to the old floppy tape drive?  I'm
not a hardware guru but it seems I should be able to.

Question two ... I tried overwriting one of the old floppy-formatted
tapes in the new drive but it hung in the driver, requiring a reboot
to unjam things.  This makes no sense to me -- the drive should just
blast anything in its path.  Do I need to bulk-erase old tapes?

-- 
Karl Swartz		|INet	kls at ditka.chicago.com
1-408/223-1308		|UUCP	{uunet,decwrl}!daver!ditka!kls
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"It's psychosomatic.  You need a lobotomy.  I'll get a saw." (Calvin)