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From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Backup devices (was: Re: VCR Backup)
Keywords: WangTek, Syquest, removable media
Message-ID: <1776@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 14 Jul 90 15:27:59 GMT
Lines: 80
Return-Path: <lpami!lphillips>
To: van-bc!rnews

In <7588@gollum.twg.com>, david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes:
>In _Amazing_Amiga_'s latest product guide a VCR based backup device
>is listed (price: $199).  There's a note saying they weren't able
>to contact the company, and sho'nuff you call 'em up and ya get a
>no-such-phone-number message.  They're in Vancouver, BC .. so are
>they related to any of the Vancouver people on the net?

Looks like AC went with info they previously had. I don't know the exact state
of their efforts at this time, but I haven't heard much about it, and figure it
probably won't make it to market. If you want to check for sure, you might try
calling Dave Allen at (604) 886-4545.

The other things you might keep in mind are that it would have been VERY slow,
and would have had the (to me) unforgivable characteristic of doing ONLY image
backups.

>I'm in the market for a backup device.  I have an A2000 with A2090a,
>and in the other corner of the room is an AT&T Unix PC.  I need to
>backup both systems and currently the only media is floppies and
>since I have yet to do a floppy backup of either system I probably
>never will.
>
>The possibilities I have come up with are:

 [some options deleted]

>-- Used Sun3 or Sun386i system with a QIC-60 drive.

QIC-60? Hmm.... QIC standards are a little confusing...

Older Suns use a tape drive capable of 60 megabyte storage on 600 ft. tapes.
The drive itself is a QIC-36 unit (QIC-36 defines an interface from controller
to drive).  It uses an Emulex MT-02 controller that adapts SCSI to QIC-36, and
records in QIC-11 or QIC-24 format (these define the encoding of the data on
tape). The important thing is that the combination of controller and drive look
like SCSI from the outside, and can be attached to a SCSI host adapter.

I am currently using one of these on my Amiga, with backup and restore software
of my own design. I also have a TAPE: handler that allows me to use tar to
access the drive. The handler was written by Markus Wandel, but I have no idea
what he plans for it, and don't know if it will become available or not. My
software will be distributed at some future date, I suspect. The only thing
holding me back right now is the potential support nightmare as folks try it on
all manner of controllers/drives. It does currently work on 2090, 2090A, A3000,
2091, and HardFrame, and with a command line option, on at least one GVP host
adapter. It's simple, with no fancy options, but does the job.

>According to the tech support at Creative Computers (Ad in AmigaWhirled)
>claims that the SQ/44 won't work on my 2090A.  This sounds *really*WEIRD*
>because: 1) it's just a disk and 2090A's control disks just fine, 2) I
>vaguely recall seeing a posting here saying they'd *put* a SQ/44 on a 2090A.

You should see if you can try it. I have heard mixed reports about this
combination.

>I can believe the GVP WT/150 won't work on the 2090A since that's the
>kind of people GVP are :-).  (And, besides, to get a tape drive into
>the SCSI drivers would require different SCSI drivers than what comes
>with the 2090A since they're specifically munged up for disk drives.)

Not quite. There is a bug with the 2090(A) driver that can be worked around in
a program to allow SCSIDirect. This lets you use it without replacing the
driver.

>It appears my best options are these:

  [options deleted]

If you can manage to get hold of a SCSI tape drive, let me know, and I'll ship
you off a copy of my programs to try out.

-larry

--
The raytracer of justice recurses slowly, but it renders exceedingly fine.
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
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