Colorado Mag Tape driver for SYSV/386

[Erik Lode]

> / hpfcso:comp.unix.i386 / mark at promark.UUCP (Mark J. DeFilippis) / 11:09 pm  Mar 18, 1990 /
> In article <6863 at cps3xx.UUCP>, usenet at cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) writes:
> Just a note.  We have 6 - 8 of these drives at various locations/clients.
> The first drivers we got were ver 2.02.  Problem... The kernel paniced
> and crashed abruptly.  The tapes would write fine, but when you read them
> back, they crash with an error 12.  The manual states this is related to
> the Reed-Solomon ECC.  In any case, a few months ago I called yelling
> about the problem.  It existed on 4 different manufacturer's 386 boards,
> two flavors of Xenix, and 3 versions of xenix.  All exhibit the same
> problem.

> Roger Arnold, the head of tech support sent me drivers 2.07 to fix the problem
> after they finally admited they had a problem.  Well, over a year later and
> it still crashes 70% of the time.  The manual states with the advanced
> Reed-Solomon ECC that the chance of error is 1 in 300000 tapes.  We find the
> chance of crash to be 3 out of 5 tapes on all of these machines.

> Ironic that we got these JUMBO drives after we thought the crash problem
> with the now extinct XR4 drives they used to make was due to hardware problems.
> So... After almost 3 years, their drivers are still buggy.  You think they
> would hire a guy that knows how to write device drivers.  In the past,
> I had requested from now ex-employee Steve Macklyn all the device info
> so we could write our own drivers, but they said they had a bad experience
> with that once before and would not provide me with the info.

> Several people/clients we deal with have finally realized that cheap backup
> that works 30% of the time is no backup at all and I have switched them to
> Archive 150 meg drives which work on the SCO supplied drivers, thus
> eliminating the need for a third party driver.

> It is a shame because we are talking major DC2000 tape investment all down
> the tubes.  Of the clients that are replacing the drives, they are dumping
> a $250 drive, but over $800 -$1000 in tapes.  Thats the cost of the Archive
> drive!  I also note here that we have never had a drive fail due to hardware.
> So if they ever hire a decent guy to write the drivers, they will make a lot
> of people happy.

> -- 
> Mark J. DeFilippis
> SA @ Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
> Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530                   (516) 663-1170
> UUCP:	 philabs!sbcs!bnlux0!adelphi!markd
> ----------

Hello Mr. DeFilippis,
This is Matt Nelson from Colorado Memory Systems.  In responce to your not
so well stated letter, I would like to make your aware of how many users we
have in the field who backed-up every day and have not experienced your
problem.  Colorado Memory Systems has roughly 5000 users of the xenix
driver and over 250000 drives in the feild.  As to your specific problem
we are trying to duplicate your situation at Colorado Memory Systems right
now to figure out how to help you.

Colorado Memory Systems wants to here of any problems if they result so that we
may conclude what is the "true" cause.  From this conclusion we will take any 
action nessesary to help you.
 
As to questions about either Unix or Xenix and Colorado Memory Systems tape
back-ups please feel free to call me, Matt Nelson at 800-432-585

____________
Colorado Memory Systems
Matt Nelson, Support Engineer
800 S. College
Loveland, CO 80537

voice: 800-432-5858