Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!unhd!AntHill!rea
From: rea@AntHill.UUCP (Robert E. Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: 1/4" tape drives
Message-ID: <rea.2176@AntHill.UUCP>
Date: 3 Oct 90 03:00:02 GMT
Lines: 52

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I followed the articles a couple of months back on SCSI tape 
drives for the Amiga.  From this I gathered that somebody had
put together a driver that supported the Amiga version of tar.
At the time I had a 20Meg Seagate that I was doing automatic
backups to (using Dillon's backup and DCron).  I was able to do
automated fulls once a month and incrementals every morning. Since
that time the Seagate has died, although this did not affect me 
a lot I am left doing floppy backups.  

This Saturday I will be going to a swap/sale fest that has a lot 
of non-state-of-the-art hardware.  Since I have a Sun 3/60 on my
desk at work I would like to pick up a 1/4" tape compatible with 
the one in my shoebox at work.

Looking for:

   1) The drivers for any SCSI tape drive (ftp sites, as IP #'s)
      BBS #'s here would be fine, preferably ones I could call
      and download the needed software w/o waiting for registration.

   2) Do I need a 1/4" 9 track 150 Meg tape drive to be compatible
      with the one in my Sun?  Or will others be capable of
      bi-directional transfer via a few options?

   3) Information on any known problems with leaving a tape in
      a 1/4" drive in my HD bay of a B2000 and adding to it each
      day.  Do the heads sit on the tape and kill data?

   4) What brands of 1/4" Half height drives will work the way
      I wish to use it.

   5) Aside from links are there other problems with using tar
      between unix and the Amiga.  And can/will this be fixable
      when I am able to run under 2.0?

Thanks for any replies!

P.S. I would not mind informing anybody who would like information
     on the automation of HD backups how I implemented it.  Since 
     people tend to ignore backups way too much, and it could use
     the publicity.

P.P.S. Knowbody has informed me of that spelling checker that 
     prempts my typing.  So pardon the atrocious spelling (isn't 
     that the first sign of a CS person :)
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Robert E. Anderson                    From the Ant Hill
Research Computing Center             unhd.unh.edu!AntHill!rea
Durham NH 03824                       Amiga 2000 UUCP / Dillon
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"Welcome my son, welcome to the machine." - Pink Ployd