floppy tape drive

[Thaddeus P. Floryan]

In article <1991Mar6.005943.20629 at csn.org> wouk at alumni.colorado.edu (Arthur Wouk) writes:
>i have recently acquired a tape backup system for my 3b1 and have two
>questions:
>
>1) the system came with release 1.0 of the software. are there any
>known problems with that software and/or are there any updates?

The FixDisk allegedly corrected some problem with the original Floppy Tape
Software, but didn't fix the date&time restoration problem.  I don't know
how you feel about it, but I prefer for the original dates and times to be
restored from tape.  The fix was simple: alter the scripts' tapecpio lines to
include an "m"

>2) the manual suggests 3m dc 600a  tapes or equivalent. have any tapes
>caused consistent problems in this use? is there  any classification
>of good or bad tapes?

Deja vi? (Pun intended)  Thought I just posted something about tapes.  In
any event, the 3M DC600A are the preferred tapes and actually give you 620'
vs. the 600' with the Sony QD-600A tapes which also work fine in the drive.

Comparing the 550 oersted and 12,500 tpi ratings, it would appear the 3M
DC6150A tapes would also work, but these (generally) are more costly and
were designed for use with 150MB drives (still with 600' of tape).

Thad Floryan [ thad at btr.com (OR) {decwrl, mips, fernwood}!btr!thad ]