Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com!DrBob
From: DrBob@cup.portal.com (Robert A Rethemeyer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Tape drives
Message-ID: <37454@cup.portal.com>
Date: 1 Jan 91 06:59:35 GMT
References: <1990Dec30.220423.3860@csc.anu.edu.au>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 24

Mark Winsall writes...
>       When I mount the BTN handler the machine just guru's when I use TAR,

Aside from the fact that your drive is not SCSI (as pointed out by Thad),
there is another problem with BTNtape that you (and other interested parties)
should know about.

The current version of BTNtape (1.0) will NOT work with anything but the
3M MCD-40 tape drives.  Sorry.

I didn't fully understand this at the time 1.0 was written, but the 3M
drive is a random-access device, whereas almost all other tape drives are
sequential access, and require slightly different SCSI commands.

So if you get a working SCSI tape drive, it is best for now to stick with
MWtape.  There is also a combination driver/backup utility called TABU.

OR... wait a few weeks and I will have an update to BTNtape available
which will handle sequential drives as well as the 3M drive.  RSN! :-)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
  Bob Rethemeyer                     //  "My Sneaker-Phone keeps kicking my
    DrBob@cup.portal.com   -or-     //    Football-Phone off the hook."
..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!DrBob //                      - Jay Leno